With Draupadi Murmu - BJP played the “pro-adivasi card” to camouflage its “Hindutva-Corporate Agenda”

Draupadi Murmu, a tribal leader from Odisha, named the ruling NDA’s candidate for the forthcoming Presidential election. It is almost certain that she will win the elections given the mandate of BJP in parliament and legislative assemblies in the states. 

With this move, Central Government played “pro-Adivasi” card in contrast to their pro-corporate and anti-Adivasi policies. There are several enactments of Modi government, in the past 8 years,  which have watered down the constitutional rights of Adivasis. These policies are directed toward adding to the skyrocketing profits of mining and coal corporations. 

They have enacted Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act in 2015. The act diluted the power of Gram Sabha to consent for mining leases and other projects in the forest land. The provision is against the spirit of the fifth and sixth schedule of the Indian Constitution and gives the inherent right to the tribes for consent to use their land for commercial purposes.

The act also did away with the provision which allowed 26 per cent profit to the District Mineral Corporation. 

There was also a bill proposing an amendment to The Forest Act, of 1927 on similar lines to that of the Mines and Minerals Act. But thankfully because of widespread protest, the act couldn’t make it to enactment.

Not only this the government even tried to enact a provision permitting forest guards to shoot any Adivasi. This is substantially similar to draconian AFSPA Law.

Survival International wrote :-

In 2019 a secret draft amendment to India’s colonial forest law, which would turn India’s forests into a virtual police state was leaked to the press. It would have given astonishing quasi-judicial powers to forest guards who would be able to shoot tribal people with impunity and hand over forest land to private companies after evicting forest dwellers

“ Attempts by the Modi government to undermine the Forest Rights Act, combined with attacks on religious diversity and difficulties in proving citizenship, make Adivasis even more vulnerable to forced evictions.”

This depicts the intention of the present regime in discarding the constitutional right of Adivasis and giving the forest land for commercial activity to their amigos.

During the lockdown, more than 90% of the Adivasi students were unable to get an education and there was virtually no support from the government.

Sudha Bharadwaj, the tribal rights activist, was labelled as an “urban Naxal” and was arbitrarily detained for more than three years. She has fought many cases of Adivasis and successfully protected their land. Her aspirations for tribal rights were against the pro-corporate approach of the regime.

Draupadi Murmu has close ties with Jharkhand. Prime Minister Modi during Jharkhand assembly elections in 2019 claimed that no one can encroach upon the land of Adivasis.

But the claim of the Hon’ble Prime Minister was contrary to legislative policies of BJP led state government then. In 2017, BJP led government in Jharkhand abolished one sub-section of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT), while one section of Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act (SPT) was amended. 

This allowed the government to give the land for commercial purposes to corporate groups. In 2016, a domicile policy was changed to define the citizenship of Jharkhand. The intention was to grab the land of Adivasis and give it to their “Corporate amigos”. 

It is expected from Draupadi Murmu, being the probable next president, to not allow corporate-hindutva ravaging of Adivasi forest. She hails from tribal background and immaterial of her political affiliation she must strive for the constitutional rights of Adivasis in India.