Modi’s unfulfilled guarantee: Why tempers are boiling among Assam’s tea tribes against BJP

Marshal Jojo was all of 19 years when he started working at the tea garden in Tengakhat, Dibrugarh district of Assam. Nearly two decades since, Jojo, now 37, is unhappy over an old demand of his community not being met.

“A Scheduled Tribes (ST) status has been a demand of my community ever since I can remember. But in 2019 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) set a deadline to granting the status, our hopes rose. It is exactly the reason why our disappointment, anger and frustration is higher now over the demand not being met,” said Jojo, a resident of Dighali Basti in Tengakhat.

“We have been cheated by the BJP government because they had promised us that our community along with five other ethnic groups of Assam will be granted the ST status. However, nothing constructive has happened so far. The party made the announcement before the 2019 general elections but after that is all fizzled out. If we get the ST status then most of our problems will be solved,” said Jojo.

Currently, the tea tribes are tagged as Other Backward Caste (OBC) in Assam. However, in other states they enjoy ST status.

“We are poor tea garden workers, our forefathers had migrated to Assam over 200 years ago and from then on most of our people have been working in tea gardens. We are Adivasi people but in Assam we are known as tea garden people because most of the people work in tea garden areas. We are hurt and angry because the government is playing with our sentiments,” Jojo rued.

There are around 900 tea gardens in Assam and about 15 lakh people are connected to them directly or indirectly. 

“We are only getting rice from the government under Public Distribution System (PDS). I have four people in the family to feed and we are getting 32 kg rice every month. But that is all, nothing else is being done for us by the government. We shouldn’t be in a situation where we depend on someone to give us rice or other grains,” he said.

Jojo said that the community members are by and large outside the ambit of government schemes.

“I applied for the Orunodoi scheme last year, but till date, I haven’t received any benefit under the scheme. In our locality, only three women got the benefit of the scheme. I don’t know why I haven’t been included,” said Sibani Jojo, wife of Marshal Jojo.

Under Orunodoi, monetary benefits are extended to poor households in the state.

Why the demand

The Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat has a sizeable population of tea garden workers. Therefore, ST status is going to be a key issue for the political contest on the seat. There are around 900 tea gardens in Assam and about 15 lakh people are connected to them directly or indirectly. This number is considered to have an influence on about 30 assembly seats of Assam. Dibrugarh, in particular, perhaps has more tea gardens per square kilometre than any other place in the world – at last count, there were 177.

These tea garden workers are spread across the districts of Western Assam, Morigaon, Nagaon, Sonitpur and Darrang in central Assam. Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivsagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia in upper Assam, and North Cachar and Karbi Anglong districts in Barak Valley.

For decades, the tea tribes have been fighting for the ST tag even though the communities they belong to like Munda, Santhal, Kurukh, Gonds, Bhumij and a dozen others are STs back in their native states. But in Assam, these Adivasi tea tribes which comprises 112 sub-groups, many from the Chota Nagpur region, besides Jharkhand and even Andhra Pradesh, are classified as tea garden labourers or tea garden tribes.

Talking to The Federal, Ignatius Topno, central committee, vice president of All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam (AASAA) said, “We have been exploited since generations, the Adivasi people or the tea garden people living in Assam have had a tough life. In other states of India, the Adivasi people were granted ST status but in Assam they were not given the status. The government used us as a vote bank and every election they enticed the ST status ‘lollipop’ to ensure votes from the community.”

“The government has no sensitivity towards our people, they only use us during the elections. If in other states of India, the Adivasi people have been tagged as ST, then why not in Assam? The British colonists brought our forefathers from Central India to cultivate tea in Assam over 200 years ago and from then on we have been living in the state and working hand in hand for the upliftment of the economy of the state but the government didn't prioritise our problem. Earlier, the Congress government neglected us and now the same is happening under the BJP,” Topno said.

A stick wicket for BJP

Granting of ST status to six ethnic groups of Assam — Adivasis (tea tribes), Mottock, Tai Ahom, Koch Rajbongshi, Sootea, Moran — was a poll promise of the BJP during the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections and 2016, 2021 Assam assembly elections. However, the saffron party maintained absolute silence regarding the ST status during its election campaign for the 2021 assembly polls and now the same is happening ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“The BJP has betrayed the tea tribe people of Assam because during the 2019 parliamentary elections, they had promised that within 100 days of coming to power, ST status will be given to six ethnic groups. The tea tribe community has been neglected and the BJP government has used them during elections. The government has failed to address the genuine problem of the community,” said Raju Sahu, former Congress MLA.

BJP candidate Sarbananda Sonowal with party leaders, including Rameswar Teli, in a rally at Mancotta tea estate in Dibrugarh.

Sahu is also the vice-president of Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), largest trade union of tea workers.

On its part, the BJP says it needs more time to act on the promise.

“It will take some time because the process we need to follow is critical. A thorough analysis is needed before granting ST status to the six ethnic groups of Assam. There are many groups within the tea tribe, some of these groups belong to upper castes and are well to do,” said BJP MLA from Dibrugarh Prasanta Phukan.

“The existing tribal groups are also protesting against the inclusion of tea tribes in the ST list and we need to address their concerns too,” he said.

Aditiya Khaklary, general secretary of All Assam Tribal Sangha(AATS) told The Federal, “The six ethnic groups don't fulfil the criteria to be included in the ST list. We strongly oppose the demand. To become a tribal some criteria should be followed which includes primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large and backwardness. The tea tribes don't fulfil the criteria.”

This Lok Sabha election, incumbent Dibrugarh MP Rameswar Teli, who represented the tea garden community, has been denied a ticket from the 116 Dibrugarh HPC. Instead of Teli, the BJP has fielded former Assam CM and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. While Teli remained MP from Dibrugarh constituency for two consecutive terms, he failed to address the problem of the tea garden community.

The Assam Tea Tribe Students’ Association (ATTSA) has been critical of Teli for not addressing their genuine problems. “We are dissatisfied with Rameswar Teli because he didn’t address our problem in Parliament and didn’t even voice his concern for the development of the community.”

The BJP-government deprived the people of our community by not providing them ST status.

“ST status has been a long-pending demand and we have staged many protests for granting us the ST tag but the government has failed after promising us,” said Lakhindra Kurmi, Dibrugarh district secretary of ATTSA.

“We have decided to not vote for the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections because they have deprived us and neglected our demands. We had high hopes of the BJP leadership but they failed to address our problem,” said Kurmi.

“The community fulfils all the criteria required for granting ST status. The BJP has been winning multiple elections with the promise of granting the status. Ten years have passed but still there is no clarity on the issue,” he said.

The tea tribe people urged for their development and to include them in the sixth schedule. However, despite the presence of two political stalwarts Paban Singh Ghatowar and Prithivi Maji in Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly for several terms, there has been no constructive development.

Dashed hopes

In 2014, when the BJP came to power, hope was rekindled among the tea tribe communities, who felt that the new government would include them in the sixth schedule.

On January 9, 2019, the Minister of Tribal Affairs, Jual Orang, tabled The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2019 in Rajya Sabha. Nothing, however, came out of it. The Bill sought to amend Part II of the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) order 1950, which specifies the communities deemed to be Scheduled Tribes, to now include the tea tribes of Assam, along with five other economically better-off communities in the state, the Tai Ahom, Koch Rajbongshi, Sootea, Moran and Mataks. In comparison, the tea tribes have remained the most economically and socially backward of them all.

According to records, out of 112 tea tribes in Assam, only 36 have been included in the list. The tea tribes comprise more than 80 lakh people in Assam. They are backward economically, socially and educationally. In contrast to the state’s 72% literacy rate, only 46% of tea tribe people are literate.

All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam vice president Ignatius Topno addressing a gathering over ST status for the community. 

“Both the state and central governments are playing with the sentiments of the indigenous communities of Assam, who were promised ST status by the government. We have decided to boycott the party in the upcoming elections because ST status is our long standing demand. The BJP government have failed to address this demand,” said Diganta Tamuli, president of Tai Ahom Yuba Parishad.

Rajiv Dutta, senior journalist, who has reported the issue for the last several years said, “Every year during elections the issue is raised, but the communities gain nothing apart from assurances. The earlier government did nothing for the community. Two ministers representing the tea tribe community who hail from Dibrugarh did nothing for the community.”