BJP’s aggression over ‘infiltrators’ undercuts JMM in key tribal hubs

Kicking up communal hysteria may not have paid Prime Minister Narendra Modi the electoral dividend he had hoped for during this year’s Lok Sabha polls. But joining his BJP’s campaign in Jharkhand with a rally each in Garhwa and Seraikella on Monday (November 4), its prime campaigner made it clear that the minor hiccup of a shrunk Lok Sabha tally won’t dissuade him from regurgitating his divisive tactics.

And so, while Modi’s repulsive slurs such as “ghuspaithiye” (infiltrators) against alleged Bangladeshi migrants (read: Muslims) and his taunts at INDIA Bloc parties like “woh mangalsutra cheen lenge” (they’ll snatch your mangalsutra) or “apki bhains le jayenge” (they’ll take away your buffalo) may have found few takers six months ago, he has repurposed them now for the Jharkhand electoral battle.

Modi’s hysteria over tribal issues

Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are pitching the Jharkhand polls as a fight for protecting the tribal-dominated state’s Maati, Beti aur Roti (land, daughter/women and livelihood) from Muslims. In the prime minister’s words, if the tribals of the state don’t vote out the incumbent JMM-Congress-RJD regime that “appeases these ghuspaithiye”, then the ‘infiltrators’ would “take away their (tribals’) daughters”.

Also Read: PM Modi attacks Opposition in Jharkhand: 'Mothers and daughters are in shock'

If commentators, political activists and rights’ groups are to be believed, what is more worrying isn’t Modi’s rhetoric but signs that this pitch is steadily finding takers in the state’s tribal pockets which the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led alliance is relying heavily upon to retain power.

BJP undercutting JMM

The ground for Modi’s line of attack at the state’s JMM-Congress-RJD alliance had been in the making for some time. For months, the BJP’s Jharkhand leaders had kicked up a relentless brouhaha over alleged demographic change in the Santhal Pargana division which includes the districts of Godda, Pakur, Deoghar, Dumka, Sahibganj and Jamtara that border West Bengal.

The main pivot of the BJP campaign was that the population of tribals in this historically tribal-dominated region, which accounts for 18 of Jharkhand’s 81 Assembly seats, had plummeted sharply while that of “illegal Bangladeshi migrants” had spiked. The BJP, including its rabble-rousing Godda MP Nishikant Dubey, claimed that as per the 1941 Census, the Santhal Parganas had a 44.67 per cent population of Scheduled Tribes, which, per the 2011 Census, had come down to just 28.11 percent.

Mandal Murmu defects

On Monday, hours before Modi arrived in Jharkhand to address his first rally in Garhwa, the BJP dealt a morale-shattering blow to the JMM with the induction of Mandal Murmu. Murmu, a descendant of tribal icons and heroes of the 1855 Santhal rebellion Sido-Kanho, was among the proposers for Hemant Soren’s candidature from the Barhait constituency.

After joining the BJP in the presence of Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP’s Jharkhand poll in-charge and the apparent architect of the demographic change theory, Murmu invoked the memory of his ancestors and told reporters that the BJP was the “only party” raising the issue of tribals and that he would join the party’s quest for restoring tribals their land in the Santhal Pargana and elsewhere in the state.

BJP’s claims challenged

Alok Kujur of Jharkhand’s Loktantra Bachao Andolan said: “The BJP’s claims are baseless and only meant to polarise. Unfortunately, in the tribal-dominated regions, all one is hearing now is this talk of demographic change. The BJP is going all out to spread this message.”

Of the 18 Assembly seats in Santhal Pargana, the JMM and Congress currently hold 14. These include the constituencies of Hemant Soren (Barhait), his brother Basant Soren (Dumka), and Congress leaders like Irfan Ansari (Jamtara), Alamgir Alam (Pakur), Badal Patralekh (Jarmundi), and Dipika Pandey Singh (Mahagama).

The BJP has already poached two of the JMM’s sitting MLAs from the region (Hemant’s sister-in-law and candidate from Jamtara Sita Soren and incumbent Borio MLA and candidate Lobin Hembrom).

Also Watch: Jharkhand polls: Does INDIA Bloc have a plan to counter BJP's tactics?

Weak response from INDIA

“Any loss for the JMM-Congress in the Santhal Pargana would directly benefit the BJP and given how the BJP is spreading its allegations about infiltrators, it is natural that its electoral impact won’t be limited to Santhal Pargana but will spread to other tribal areas like Kolhan too,” Kujur said.

“Unfortunately, while civil society groups have been trying to expose the false claims of the BJP ever since they were first made, the response of the JMM-Congress alliance hasn’t been as strong. It is only now that Hemant Soren has started questioning the BJP aggressively about its claims but at least some damage has already been done and the JMM can only hope now to arrest that,” he added.

Shah’s ministry speaks truth

A PIL in the Jharkhand High Court on illegal land encroachment has kept the issue simmering legally too even though an affidavit filed by the Union home ministry, helmed by none other than Amit Shah, just this September conceded that there was “no evidence, so far” of “linkages to Bangladeshi immigrants” in such disputes, and so, by logical extension to the demographic change theory.

The prime minister and his other BJP lieutenants have not let that inconvenient truth mentioned in the affidavit filed by Shah’s ministry come in way of their electioneering. Modi has dubbed the Hemant Soren-led government as one that shelters “ghuspaithiye” and, if voted to power again, would even “take away your (tribals’) reservation and give it to their vote bank (read: Muslims).

A day earlier, while releasing the BJP’s manifesto for Jharkhand, Shah had adopted a similar line of attack against the JMM-led alliance while promising, among other things, a new law to “take back land” from alleged infiltrators and distribute it to tribals.

Amit Shah woos tribals

Shah also announced that the BJP, if voted to power, will implement a Uniform Civil Code in the state but keep the tribals out of its ambit while also simultaneously “considering” the tribals’ demand of enlisting the Sarna Code formally as a separate religion; a pitch that is at variance with the stand of the RSS that “all tribals are originally Hindus” and a separate Sarna religion would be “divisive”.

In a sense, the BJP was also trying to blunt the INDIA bloc’s campaign for safeguarding reservations (by saving the Constitution from the BJP’s assaults) by claiming that the Congress and its allies planned to take away reservations earmarked for tribals and redistribute it among Muslims (something no INDIA bloc constituent has proposed).

Modi’s misinformation campaign in Garhwa and Seraikella -- the latter is the constituency of recent BJP inductee and former chief minister Champai Soren -- also asserted that the Congress planned to scrap reservations altogether in the future.

Hemant Soren’s problems

The communal cocktail being dished out by Modi and his BJP acolytes in Jharkhand, while the Election Commission expectedly turns a Nelson’s eye, isn’t without reason.

“Ever since the JMM-led alliance came to power in the state in 2019, the BJP has struggled to break the tribal consolidation that Hemant Soren had achieved. By choosing Raghubar Das (a backward caste leader) as its chief minister from 2014 to 2019, the BJP had alienated tribals and the 2019 result showed the extent of that alienation as the BJP could win only two of the 28 Assembly seats reserved for STs. Over the last five years, Hemant tried to strengthen his party and alliance’s social base by consolidating both STs and Muslims, which constitute over 26 per cent and 15 per cent of the state’s population respectively. Even in the recent Lok Sabha polls, all five ST reserved seats of the state were won by the JMM and Congress though the BJP swept the general category seats,” says Ranchi-based political analyst Manoj Prasad.

Prasad adds: “By building up this issue of demographic change, the BJP is trying to simultaneously prevent Hemant from achieving that consolidation while also hoping to split the tribal vote bank. If the BJP succeeds, it would be very difficult for Hemant Soren to return as chief minister this time,” says Ranchi-based political analyst Manoj Prasad.

Heman’t counter; too late?

Soren’s belated response to the BJP’s hate campaign isn’t devoid of political punches. Asserting that it was the Modi government that gave safe refuge to deposed Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina when she fled Dhaka this August, Soren recently questioned with what face the BJP was alleging that the JMM was giving shelter to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

“Electricity produced in Jharkhand is being supplied to Bangladesh, while people of the state are left to deal with the pollution caused by these power plants. Isn't it the duty of the Centre to guard the borders and check infiltration? State governments have no role in it. Infiltrators enter India through states ruled by you (BJP). Why don't you check infiltration there? They (BJP) admit that infiltration occurs in their state, yet they hold Jharkhand responsible,” Soren has claimed.

Moving forward, JMM sources say this counter-charge, alongside playing up Jharkhand and Adivasi pride and showcasing his populist schemes such as Abua Awas and Maiyya Samman Yojana will be Soren’s ammunition for the campaign.

Unkept promises will hurt JMM

However, many within the JMM-Congress alliance believe Soren’s counter-punch “may not be able to fully reverse the damage already caused” as the BJP’s communal rhetoric isn’t the only factor pulling down the JMM-led alliance.

“The demographic change charge of the BJP is hurting us most but it isn’t the only thing. There are a string of bad decisions that we as an alliance or our individual partners have taken and then there are issues which were beyond our control... For the past five years, the BJP made every possible effort to topple our government; Hemant Soren was more concerned about saving the government and so, governance suffered,” a JMM legislator told The Federal.

“Several of our promises couldn’t be implemented fully and Hemant was jailed in the middle of all this; when he returned, the Champai Soren episode happened... Now there is anti-incumbency; many unpopular MLAs who both JMM and Congress should have replaced are back as candidates, which will also damage us,” the legislator added.

Congress brass ignores Jhakhand?

Sources said there was also a lack of cohesion between the INDIA partners, especially between the JMM and the Congress.

“Coordination was very poor and it delayed our seat-sharing negotiations and candidate selection. Now in several seats we are facing ‘friendly fights’ with smaller allies or a problem of rebels. This lack of coordination has not been addressed even now, which is why we haven’t even been able to launch our manifesto,” another JMM leader said.

“There has also been no joint campaign by the top leaders of JMM and Congress, Hemant Soren and Kalpana Soren are carrying the full weight of the alliance on their shoulders and they can’t be everywhere; this is sending a bad message while the BJP has dispatched everyone, from Modi to Shah, Himanta to Shivraj (Chouhan) to run its campaign,” the leader added.

JMM upset over missing Rahul

A lot of anger within the JMM, the sources said, is directed at the “lack of seriousness displayed by the Congress high command” with regard to Jharkhand, a close aide of Hemant Soren told The Federal.

“We are days away from the first phase of the election (scheduled across 43 seats on August 13) and there is no sign of Rahul Gandhi; Mallikarjun Kharge came for his first rally today (November 5),” the aide said. “First they were busy with Priyanka Gandhi’s nomination in Wayanad and then I think with Diwali, which is fine but what is stopping Rahul now?”

The Soren aide said further: “Priyanka’s win in Wayanad is guaranteed but Rahul is more involved with the campaign for that seat than in Jharkhand where his party’s candidates actually need him. Instead of coming here, we were told he is going for some functions in Rae Bareli and Hyderabad... It feels like they have just left Hemant Soren and even Jharkhand Congress leaders to fend for themselves at a time when the BJP is carrying out an aggressive and polarising campaign which could have been diffused to some extent because of Rahul’s Bharat Jodo legacy.”