Gujarat AAP leader Chaitar Vasava: ‘BJP’s UCC move is to target minorities… this will dent its prospects in tribal seats’

Tribals are in a pathetic condition today because of oppression and lack of education. They are deprived of their lands for projects such as the Statue of Unity. Commercial hotels are being built on acquired land; no tribals are being employed there.

Bringing the UCC will dilute many laws relating to special rights and property for tribals. These laws empower the community.

Tribal customs are unique. The community socially accepts lovers who elope and have children too. We have a practice of having multiple wives. We support widow remarriage. We also do not differentiate between girls and boys; the sex-ratio among tribals is much better. We have a jamai-pratha custom in which the son-in-law comes into the wife’s home in case there are no sons in the family.

Our communities can decide on disputes and divorces in villages (sabhas). If the UCC is implemented, rituals for our kuldevtas (traditional deities) will be dissolved.

It will also take away the special powers that our community has been granted in the Constitution by way of reservation. Our representation in politics at the moment — with elected representatives from the gram panchayat level to MPs — will end.

Other tribal leaders in the state have disagreed on this position. They have said you were defending certain practices, especially polygamy, calling it your “personal interest”.

These are BJP leaders who are acting as per their party’s instructions. But the fact remains: social practices of tribals are different and they will be impacted. The identity of the community will be finished.

The BJP made the UCC proposal ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to essentially target minorities, particularly Muslims. They are not realising that the proposal will dent the party’s prospects in many tribal seats, if the community is not excluded from the ambit of the Act.

You threatened to resign over the issue?

I have been working in rural areas for several years; I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Rural Agriculture. I was a member of the Narmada District Panchayat.

My wife, Shakuntala, is a two-term member of the District Panchayat. Even after we quit the BTP in October 2022, she continued in her post.

I won the (Dediapada) Assembly seat in 2022 because the tribal population believed in my work. I have invested my youth for the social empowerment of tribals. Whether I remain with AAP or not, I will have people’s support.

The AAP has promised to support the protest of the community. They have not stopped me from holding protests. Our demonstrations against the UCC are also under the AAP banner right now. Even if I quit the AAP, I will never join the Congress and BJP – two parties I have fought against. I will also not return to the BTP.

You were once one of the strongest grassroot leaders in the BTP. How do you assess that party now?

When Chhotu Dada (BTP chief Chhotubhai Vasava) was in the Janata Dal (United), Mahesh Vasava (Chhotubhai’s son and BTP president) won the Dediapada seat in 2002. In 2007, he polled only 13,000 votes. They then realised that Dediapada was not a seat they could bank on. When I got attached to Chhotu Dada as a young activist with my team (sometime in 2014), Mahesh started visiting Dediapada again. But, on the ground, we were his foot soldiers. Mahesh won the 2017 (the year BTP was formed) Assembly election again from Dediapada with a big margin.

It had been decided much earlier that Chhotu Dada would retire from electoral politics and not contest the 2022 election from his safe seat of Jhagadia. Mahesh was to contest on his seat and I was to contest from Dediapada. But there was a feud within the family.

I don’t see a future for the BTP now, since they have polled less than one lakh votes in the entire state (in the 2022 election).

There is speculation that the BJP is trying to woo you for the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat.

I personally do not harbour any immediate ambitions for a Lok Sabha seat. If the AAP asks me to contest, I will do it. I have no plans of joining the BJP, which I fight against.

The AAP had a campaign blitz during the 2022 polls. How do you see the party performance in the Assembly ?

During the Budget session, AAP leaders raised important issues. Hemant Ahir from Jamjodhpur, Umesh Makwana from Botad, and I have been working sincerely in our areas.

Where do you see the AAP after five years?

By 2027, the AAP in Gujarat will be bigger in terms of cadre and even Assembly strength. In our very first election, the party bagged 41 lakh votes in the state. This was amidst the discourse that a third political party had no prospects in Gujarat. Had we polled only about three or four lakh votes, we would not be as motivated.