Rally organised in Darjeeling on Sunday to demand tribal status for 11 communities

 Motto was to 'wake up' BJP-led Centre that so far failed to fulfill the party's hill promise

The procession to demand the Scheduled Tribe status organised by the Gorkha Bharatiya Janjati Mahasangh in Darjeeling on Sunday

Vivek Chhetri, TT,  Darjeeling, 31.07.23  : A massive rally was organised in Darjeeling on Sunday to demand tribal status for 11 communities to “wake up” the BJP-led Centre that so far failed to fulfill the party's hill promise. The rally started from Darjeeling Motor Stand and ended at Chowrasta in town. 

So far, there are no signs that any bill to fulfill the BJP’s two promises — tribal tag and permanent political solution — would be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament. The urgency for protests possibly stems from the fact that the five-year tenure of the BJP-led government at the Centre is coming to an end. 

Apart from the ongoing monsoon session, only one winter session is available to the present government. 

“We are demanding tribal status to 11 communities as before 1950 all the communities from the hills were classified as hill tribes. In the past, all senior BJP leaders right from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to home minister Amit Shah promised to look into our demand,” said M.S. Rai, president, Gorkha Bharatiya Janjati Mahasangha. 

The Mahasangha is an umbrella body with representatives of 11 hill communities seeking tribal status. 

The 11 communities are Bhujel, Gurung, Mangar, Newar, Jogi, Khas, Rai, Sunuwar, Thami, Yakka (Dewan) and Dhimal. “S.S. Ahluwalia (the BJP Darjeeling MP from 2014 to 2019) was let off scot-free. We cannot afford to keep silent again. 

We need to wake up the central government. During our next phase of agitation, we will involve school and college students and government employees in our protest,” said a community representative. 

During Ahluwalia’s tenure, the Union ministry of tribal affairs formed a committee in 2016 to examine and recommend tribal status to these 11 communities. Since then, the committee was reconstituted thrice and the final report compiled by a team headed by M.R. Tshering, joint secretary, ministry of tribal affairs, passed the buck to the Office of Registrar General of India (ORGI) in 2019. 

“The determination has to be done as per the modalities of the government. ORGI is the competent authority to determine if a community is as per its yardstick for listing as Schedule Tribe,” the report stated. 

Even before the report was submitted, the office of the ORGI twice rejected the proposal sent by the Bengal and Sikkim governments to grant tribal status on various grounds. 

The ORGI in the past stated granting tribal status would give rise to similar demands from people of Nepalese origin from other states, apart from Bengal and Sikkim, and that “inflow of Nepalese immigrants will further increase....” 

The ORGI also observed that backward tribes like Bhutia and Lepcha in Sikkim would be deprived if the 11 communities got tribal status. 

Gorkhaland protest Apolitical outfit Gorkhaland Activist Samuha (GAS) from Darjeeling organised a protest march in Delhi for Gorkhaland to coincide with the Parliament's monsoon session. 

The BJP promised tribal status and “permanent political solution” for the hill people in its 2019 Lok Sabha poll manifesto. Most hill people interpret the second as Gorkhaland state.

Courtesy & Source- The Telegraph