Jharkhand Elections: How exclusion of tribals from UCC underlines BJP’s consistent stand

Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah. (File Photo: PTI)

The Bharatiya Janata Party has assured that the tribal community will be excluded from the ambit of the Uniform Civil Code, a policy it promises to implement in the state if it comes to power in Jharkhand. The promise of a UCC in the state is part of the BJP’s manifesto for the Jharkhand elections.

The mention of a UCC in the manifesto and its articulation by Union Home Minister Amit Shah has drawn some strong reactions from the ruling alliance of the JMM, Congress and RJD, who have sought to label the promise as an affront to tribal rights.

Shortly after the BJP’s announcement, Chief Minister Hemant Soren hit back stating that neither the UCC nor the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would be allowed in the state which would adhere only to the Chotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) and Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Acts to protect tribal culture, land, and rights.

"Neither the UCC nor the NRC will be implemented here. Jharkhand will rely solely on the Chotanagpur Tenancy and Santhal Pargana Tenancy Acts. These people (the BJP) are spewing venom and do not care about tribals, natives, Dalits, or backward communities," Soren said at a rally in Garhwa.

‘False Propaganda’

However, the BJP’s poll promise makes it explicitly clear that the UCC, as and when implemented, would exclude tribals from its ambit.

“Our government will introduce the UCC in Jharkhand, but tribals will be kept out of its ambit. Hemant Soren and the JMM government are making false propaganda that the UCC will impact tribal rights, culture, and relevant legislation, which is totally baseless," Amit Shah said while releasing the BJP’s poll manifesto.

Shah asserted that although the UCC would be implemented, it would be ensured that tribal rights were not affected.

A Consistent Stand

While the BJP’s decision to exclude tribals from the proposed UCC is crucial for the immediate electoral outcome in the state where the community comprises over 26 percent of the population (as per 2011 Census), a closer look at the party’s stand on the uniform family law over the course of the past one year shows consistency.

The party’s UCC pitch, which traces its roots to its Jan Sangh days, and questions the existence of Muslim personal law in a secular state, has consistently been accompanied by assurances that tribals will not be affected. This stand has been articulated at different times by multiple leaders who have held important positions in the government.

In July 2023, late BJP leader and former Deputy CM of Bihar Sushil Modi, said the tribes of the Northeast states should be kept out of the purview of a UCC. The remarks by Modi, who then chaired the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, came in the context of a discussion on the Law Commission examining the question of a UCC in India.

Speaking to the media on UCC in Arunachal Pradesh in the same month Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said: “We don’t need to discuss the issue of a UCC in Arunachal and tribal areas. If you have studied the Constitution and rules or you have seen provisions, you must know that UCC is not applicable in Tribal Scheduled Areas. Secondly, whatever laws are being made are for the betterment of the country. These laws are made as per the Constitution. In the Constitution, if Arunachal Pradesh is a tribal state, then it is not applicable as there is no such thing mentioned in the Constitution. So, there is nothing to discuss about it.”

SP Singh Baghel, another BJP minister again said in July 2023 that the government would not interfere with the customary practices of tribals, while adding that “appeasement politics” would not prevent a UCC.

“The BJP chose to nominate a tribal woman as the President of India… It also has the largest number of tribal MLAs, MPs, Rajya Sabha members and ministers. The customs of the Northeast are respected by the party, and we will not hurt any religious or social customs, but appeasement politics is not right either,” he said, adding that the sixth Schedule of the Constitution grants special provisions to certain tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram, and that nothing would apply to these areas unless their own state legislatures ratify the Centre’s decision.

In January this year, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while asserting that Assam would become the third state after Uttarakhand and Gujarat to implement the UCC, also made it clear that it would exempt tribals from its ambit.

“I am waiting to see the UCC bill of Uttarakhand and once that is done, we will bring the same legislation; but since we are working against child marriages and polygamy, there will be some innovation to it. In Assam, the tribal community will be exempted from the ambit of UCC,” he had then said.

The Uttarakhand UCC also exempted tribals from its purview, making it clear that uniformity did not mean tinkering with tribal practices.

Tribal Identity and the Sarna Code

The controversy over the issue of the UCC finds its genesis in the tussle between the BJP and the JMM to woo tribal voters and associate themselves as their well-wishers. The BJP, once seen as an “upper caste party”, to woo tribal voters, alongside backwards and Dalits, in recent years.

On the other hand, the JMM, led by Hemant Soren, has sought to paint his arrest and incarceration in a money laundering case which led to his brief departure from chief ministership as an affront to Adivasi pride at the BJP’s hands.

However, the tussle between the two parties over the Adivasi issue isn’t new. In 2020, the Jharkhand Assembly passed a resolution demanding a ‘Sarna tribal religion’ code during a special session. Centred around nature worship, the Sarna tribal religion is predominantly practised by Adivasi communities in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Assam and West Bengal. Although there was no separate code — only Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism have their own — around 50 lakh people recorded their religion as Sarna in the 2011 census.

Since the passage of the resolution, the JMM has renewed its demand for a separate Sarna code, which its proponents argue is key to protecting the faith and Adivasi traditions, and stemming religious conversion. The Opposition used the issue to corner the BJP during the Lok Sabha elections this year and achieved considerable success.

The INDIA bloc won all five seats reserved for STs in the state and is now hopeful of repeating the performance in the 28 Assembly seats reserved for STs in the Kolhan, North Chotanagpur and Santhal Pargana divisions, which are crucial to gain power in the 81-member Jharkhand assembly.

The BJP’s UCC proposal keeping tribals out of its ambit also need to be seen in the context of the party’s bigger plank of infiltration against the ruling JMM government, and whether it can prove to be an effective strategy in the tribal-dominated state.