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Journalism of Courage
FROM WASHING the feet of Dashmat Rawat, publicly apologising to him and granting him financial aid, to razing the house of accused Pravesh Shukla and charging him under the NSA, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has acted swiftly to contain the potential damage from the incident of urination on a tribal.
Adding to the pressure on the BJP was the Congress allegation that Shukla was a representative of the BJP MLA from Siddhi, Kedarnath Shukla. The MLA, who denied this, was among the BJP leaders who called on Rawat. After he faced protests during his visit to Rawat’s home in Siddhi, where he told the family all about the BJP government’s schemes for tribals, Chouhan stepped in to himself host Rawat in Bhopal.
Then, as cameras watched, Chouhan led Rawat to a chair by hand, washed his feet, garlanded and honoured him, and referred to him as Sudama, the loyal and “poorer” friend of Lord Krishna. “Seeing that video pained me. I apologise to you,” said Chouhan.
The visuals were proof as to how damaging the BJP feels the optics of the incident can be for the party in an election year. Just a week ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in MP’s tribal-dominated Shahdol district, where he was pictured handing over footballs to children, and interacting with the community while launching the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission.
Ever since the BJP came to power three years ago after toppling the elected Congress government, it has been working hard to woo the state’s Scheduled Tribes (STs), who account for over 21% of the population, and have 47 of the state’s 230 seats reserved for them.
The 2018 results had been a shock for the BJP in the tribal-reserved seats, as it could win only 16 of them, with the Congress getting 30. This was a complete reversal of 2013, when the BJP had won 31 ST seats to the Congress’s 15.
MP has one of the largest tribal populations in the country, with 46 groups recognised as STs, of which three are Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups. Of MP’s 52 districts, six are “fully tribal”, while another 15 are classified as “partially tribal”.
The Bhil community accounts for nearly 40% of the state’s ST population, followed by the Gonds at 34%.
As part of the BJP government’s tribal outreach, in September 2021, Union Home Minister Amit Shah renamed Chhindwara University after Shankar Shah and his son Raghunath Shah, the last Gond rulers. The Home Minister announced the installation of their statues at a cost of Rs 50 lakh, and construction of a museum for Rs 5 crore.
In 2021, CM Chouhan renamed the Patalpani railway station in Indore after Tantya Bhil, the tribal leader who took part in the 1857 rebellion against the British East India Company. The CM also announced the setting up of a memorial to Bhima Nayak in Barwani. Nayak headed the struggle of the Bhils against the British in Khandesh from 1818 to 1850. In November 2021, Bhopal’s Habibganj railway station was renamed after Gond queen Rani Kamalapati, the wife of Gond ruler Nizam Shah.
Of late, BJP ground workers have been busy highlighting the party’s schemes for tribals, including the implementation of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) or PESA Act.
The Congress has also kept its eyes on the tribal vote. In his campaign speeches, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath, whose pocket borough is the tribal-dominated Chhindwara constituency, frequently highlights “atrocities” against tribals in the state, calling MP No. 1 in the same. The Congress claims that under the BJP’s 18-year reign in the state (barring when the Congress was in power for little over a year), there have been “30,400 cases of atrocities on Adivasis”.
On Thursday, Kamal Nath said: “Only 10% of cases come to the fore. No matter how many feet he (Chouhan) washes… he who has a clear soul doesn’t need a camera.”
Former Congress CM Digvijaya Singh alleged that the accused Shukla and the local MLA’s son were together involved in illegal sand mining, and that Rawat was assaulted and humiliated because he had complained about it. “There are many such incidents in the state, where people have encroached upon tribal land. The Siddhi MLA has himself encroached upon such land. This drama will satisfy a few people, but the blot on the dignity of tribals won’t be washed away,” Singh told reporters.
The Congress also sent several former ministers to Rawat’s home, and alleged that he was “forcibly taken to Bhopal”. “Forcibly taking Dashmat away from his family, isolating him from his children and elderly parents is an act of political abduction,” said Ramu Tekam, the tribal department head of the MP Congress.
Referring to Chouhan’s remarks, he added, “Was Sudama also separated from his family in a similar manner?”
Congress spokesperson K K Mishra said the party intended to “focus all its attacks on the CM” in their poll campaigns. “We will keep firing at the CM… The tribal community is really upset over the incident,” Mishra said.
On Friday, in another gesture towards Rawat, the MP government sanctioned Rs 5 lakh aid to him. The Sidhi district collector said an additional Rs 1.5 lakh has been sanctioned for the construction of his house.
Kalsingh Bhabar, the head of the state BJP ST Morcha, said the party was confident the incident would not overshadow their work of the past three years. “We have been celebrating tribal culture and bringing it to the mainstream. We brought drinking water, irrigation and other schemes to the tribal belt,” he said.
