Poll bound state of Jharkhand saw its chief minister Hemant Soren mocking Opposition BJP leaders on the issue of Bangladeshi infiltration and its alleged impact on tribal population by raising the sentimental issue of Sarna dharma code for Adivasis in the decadal census.

Addressing a function at Gandey (the home constituency of his wife Kalpana Murmu Soren) in Giridih district on Monday evening, Hemant who is heading a JMM-Congress-RJD government said: “Opposition leaders, some even from Assam and other states come to Jharkhand and spread narrative about Bangladeshi infiltration, love jihad and land jihad and claim that tribal population is declining. I want to ask them if they are so concerned about tribal identity then why are they not giving tribes their separate Sarna religion code? In the absence of identity, population decline is expected.”

“We had unanimously passed a resolution in the Jharkhand Assembly calling for a separate Sarna dharma code for tribals and sent it to the Centre but so many years have passed but they are sitting over the resolution silently,” alleged Soren.

Significantly, majority of tribals in Jharkhand are Sarna followers and nature worshipers have been fighting for a separate religious identity in India for decades and in recent years have staged agitation in Delhi and other parts of the country.

Tribals argue that the implementation of a separate Sarna religious code in census surveys would allow the tribals to be identified as followers of the Sarna faith. Tribal organisations have claimed that with the Centre dropping the “Others” option from the religion column for the next Census, Sarna adherents would be forced to either skip the column or declare themselves members of one of the six specified religions: Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh.

Hemant had in June 2022 alleged that the state Assembly had passed a resolution in a special session of the House in 2020 demanding the Sarna dharma code to be included in the Census and submitted it through the governor to the Centre. But claimed that no decision has been taken by the BJP-led central government on the issue. He had also written a letter to the Prime Minister in this connection in September 2022.

Continuing his aggression against the BJP, Hemant said: “Earlier OBC used to get 27 per cent reservation in Jharkhand but a former chief minister of BJP (hinting at Raghubar Das) had reduced it to 14 per cent. When we passed a bill for increasing reservations for OBC then it was stuck up in Raj Bhawan and at the Centre. There is a difference between the actions and statements of the BJP. They only try to put obstacles in our schemes from behind the screen by sending their people to file PIL in courts.”