Efforts to sway tribal sentiments, which hold the key to electoral success in ST reserved seats, have begun in earnest with few months left for the general election and Jharkhand Assembly polls later next year.

Tribal organisation Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan’s (Santhali word for tribal empowerment campaign) national president and former BJP MP from Mayurbhanj (in Odisha) Salkhan Murmu (who is no longer associated with the BJP) threatened Bharat Bandh on December 30 as part of its pre-announced plans to protest against non-announcement of separate Sarna dharma code by the BJP-led Centre and went on to give a call ‘Jo Sarna Dharma code dega, Adivasi usko vote dega’ (whosoever will give Sarna dharma code, tribals will vote for it).

Incidentally, tribal sentiments hold the key to poll success in 28 (ST reserved seats) out of 81 Assembly seats in Jharkhand.

At 28, ST-reserved seats in Jharkhand can swing the election in any party’s favour. In 2014, the BJP won 12 of these seats, out of its total of 37, and allied with the All Jharkhand Students’ Union to form a government. However, in the 2019 elections, the BJP tally of ST-reserved seats fell to just two, with the JMM-Congress alliance winning 25, and an Independent winning 1.

“Tribals have been raising demands for a separate Sarna dharma code for the last few years and we have written to the Prime Minister, home minister and even President Droupadi Murmu in this regard. We have seen Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting Khunti in Jharkhand on November 15 and Droupadi Murmu visiting Mayurbhanj on November 21 but both of them remained silent on Sarna dharma code. Now we see a BJP-RSS sponsored rally in Ranchi on December 24 calling for the delisting of converted tribals from ST status. All these are attempts to reap electoral gains by misleading tribals. We will not let it happen this time,” said Salkhan Murmu.

“Both Congress and BJP are equally responsible for denying tribals their rights to religious identity. While Congress removed the Sarna dharma code after 1951 census, the BJP has remained silent on it for close to 10 years since it came to power in the Centre and indulging in drama in the name of appeasing tribals and is trying to convert the tribals as vanvasis and Hindus” alleged Salkhan Murmu and claimed that the party which gives Sarna code will get tribal votes in Jharkhand.

Murmu claimed that tribals in sizeable numbers will take to the streets and block road and rail movement in the entire Jharkhand, Hooghly, Malda, North Dinajpur, Bardhaman, South Dinajpur, Purulia, Bankura (in Bengal), Kishanganj, Purnea and Katihar (in Bihar), Kokrajhar and Dibrugarh (in Assam), Maurbhanj, Keonjhar, Balasore and Dhenkanal (in Odisha) on December 30.

Murmu urged political parties who had supported the Sarna Religion Code Bill in Jharkhand Assembly on November 11 to come out in support of ASA’s demand.

The Jharkhand Assembly unanimously passed a resolution in November 2020 advocating the recognition of Sarna as a distinct religion in the census

Significantly, tribals in Jharkhand majority of whom 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.