‘Congress was expected to do better’: Tribal discontent simmers in Chhattisgarh

Unhappy with the Congress-led administration, Adivasi communities have also been protesting against alleged fake encounters and mining of natural resources, and have been demanding the protection of their autonomy.

Earlier this week, the Sarva Adiwasi Samaj’s Chhindgarh block unit wrote to Governor Anusuiya Uikey to voice its opposition to the recitation competitions that started across the state in mid-March. In Chhindgarh, the event was set to be held on March 29 and 30.

Defending tribals’ right to protect their cultural identity, the Adivasi outfit said it was against any infringement on fundamental rights and tribal customs in a Fifth Schedule area. The Fifth Schedule under Section 244 (1) of the Constitution protects tribal interests in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Rajasthan.

“Organising such programmes is against public peace, ethics, and order of the region,” the Adivasi organisation wrote in the letter to the governor. “It is noteworthy that the permission of the tribal society is mandatory before organising any religious program in the scheduled tribal area. But neither permission was taken from the tribal society in any way nor was permission given by the tribal society.”

The letter to Uikey forced the Congress government to backtrack and defer the event, but the Sarva Adiwasi Samaj is not content with just a postponement. A representative of the outfit pointed out that “tribal customs and rituals…are not linked to the Hindu deities”.

This is not the first instance of Adivasis protesting against the Congress government’s move to promote events with Hindu religious overtones. In the past, they have come out against the state cultural department’s decision to set up Hindu temples and travel circuits in tribal areas, and its attempts to promote customs related to Hindu deity Ram. In 2021, Adivasis in the Bastar division had protested against the Congress’s Ram Van Gaman Path Yatra and blocked a road to stop the transportation of soil from their area to Raipur for the government’s second-anniversary celebrations.

Fight to maintain autonomy

The tribals, however, are not just opposing the Bhupesh Baghel administration’s cultural policies.

On March 14, at a rally in Raipur, the Sarva Adiwasi Samaj surrounded the chief minister’s residence and placed a 20-point charter of demands. Most of those were about their autonomy. “The Constitution grants tribals the right to exist as they wish. The BJP government had tried to mute our voices, which led to their fall. The Congress government was expected to do better, but they are going the way of the BJP,” the tribal outfit’s secretary Vinod Nagwanshi told The Indian Express.

Adivasis in the districts of Kanker and Bastar have voiced their opposition to the move to reclassify their villages from Gram Panchayats to Nagar Panchayats. The Panchayat (Extension of the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, or PESA, allows tribals to maintain autonomy and protect their surroundings. But the Act ceases to be operational once a village is notified as a Nagar Panchayat (urban area). This, the Adivasis claim, is a ruse to end their community’s rights to natural resources.

“We do not want the government’s idea of development, we are happy with what we have. We just want to be left in peace and given what we demand, not an arbitrary decision taken by officials sitting far from us,” said one of the protesters.

Explaining why the protests were happening, Bastar resident Manku Sodhi said, “Under a Gram Panchayat, we are still eligible to follow PESA norms. We have more control over our villages. We don’t want to become Nagar Panchayats, which would change our area into an urban setting.”

Meanwhile, tribals are also opposing coal mining in the forests of Hasdeo Aranya and iron ore extraction in Narayanpur district. In the district of Bijapur and other areas where Maoists are active, the Moolwasi Bachao Manch is leading demonstrations against illegal detentions, fake encounters, and the increasing presence of security forces.

“We want schools, hospitals, and other basic facilities. A camp is not for our safety as our movement in the jungles gets affected by the presence of armed security personnel who think all of us are Maoists,” a member of the Manch told The Indian Express.

‘Congress not interested’

Criticising his party’s government, senior Congress leader and former Cabinet minister Aravind Netam said the state administration did not seem interested in listening to tribals.

“The government is not even making the reports of various judicial commissions who have conducted inquiries into the various killings of our people. The state government has clearly shut the tribals out, or so it seems to the community. But we will keep on fighting for our rights,” he said.

But both the ruling party and the Opposition BJP seem to have their ears to the ground and have taken note of the resentment in tribal communities. While the Congress has instructed its leaders to increase their presence on the ground, the BJP, as is evident from recent statements of its state in-charge D Purandeswari, is focusing on the region of Bastar. In the 2018 elections, the saffron party managed to win only one of the 12 Assembly seats in the region, but it lost the by-polls to the Congress after its lone legislator, Dantewada MLA Bhima Mandavi, was killed in a Maoist attack in 2019.

Asked about the Opposition party, a senior leader of the Sarva Adiwasi Samaj, who did not want to be named, said, “We have seen how the BJP worked for 15 years. There is no point in believing they have changed their ideologies. That is what makes the betrayal by Congress even worse.”

Though Baghel has invited the Adiwasi Samaj for talks to discuss its demands, the organisation is planning to hold more protests in the days to come.