Hindustan Times (Ranchi)

‘Classifica­tion of tribes, determinat­ion of creamy layer against spirit of Constituti­on’

This decision will only help the Bharatiya Janata Party achieve its political interests in the wrong way

BANDHU TIRKEY, Congress

Former minister, member of the coordinati­on committee of Jharkhand government and executive president of Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee, Bandhu Tirkey said on Wednesday that if the creamy layer was determined by the states along with classifica­tion of tribals into subtribes as per the recent decision of the Supreme Court, then not only would the civilisati­on and culture of the tribals be destroyed but it was also against the basic spirit of Constituti­on.

Tirkey, while demanding a discussion on this matter in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, said this was a matter directly related to 13 crore tribals of the country who would be affected by this.

“Although this is a matter of the court, yet this decision will only help the Bharatiya Janata Party achieve its political interests in the wrong way where it wants to divide the tribals at the social level and also wants to strengthen its Hindutva edge by building a wall among the tribals. The BJP is working on the policy of divide and rule,” Tirkey said.

Tirkey expressed apprehensi­on that the Centre deliberate­ly did not strongly present the side of the tribals before the court in the context of the ground realities of the tribals as well as their civilisati­on-culture, language, social status and economic conditions, due to which such a disappoint­ing decision had come.

“If the order of the Supreme Court is followed literally, then the tribal community will be marginal is ed ... after implementi­ng the directions of the Supreme Court at the ground level, the existence of small tribal groups will be in danger because there are many communitie­s like Lohra, Mahli whose population is very less as compared to the Oraon and Munda population but they have unity only on the basis of being tribals and all are tied by the same socio-economic bond,” he said.

Tirkey said: “Tribals will have to bear the brunt of classifica­tion of the entire population only on the basis of economics and this will affect the reservatio­n as well as the benefits of the government schemes that they get.”

Presenting legal status of the matter, Tirkey said: “In 2004, in the case of EV Chinnaiah vs State of Andhra Pradesh, the Supreme Court had said that Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes cannot be sub-classified and that decision was absolutely correct whereas this is not the case in the present decision. The decision of the Supreme Court is actually a victory of the policy of the BJP in which it wants to gradually end the reservatio­n in the name of review.”

Explaining how the Supreme Court decision is against the basic spirit of the constituti­on said: “When the constituti­on was being framed, the words Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste were used after a lot of thought and in that spirit, Scheduled Tribes are a group and not a separate class. Even if the words of the Supreme Court are accepted, then the determinat­ion of the creamy layer of 800 tribal communitie­s spread across the country is very complex in which important social aspects are definitely ignored, which shows the inconsiste­ncies of this decision.”

National president of BJP ST Morcha Sameer Oroan, who recently contested for Lohardaga parliament­ary seat, contradict­ed Tirkey’s remark and termed his statement an effort to mislead the tribal.

“Since BJP has come in power it has kept on doing work for developmen­t of tribals unlike Congress, which used tribals as vote bank and instead of developing them economical­ly and bringing them in mainstream of developmen­t kept on misleading them by provoking their tribal sentiments. Bandhu’s recent statement is in the same direction. If Tirkey is really worried about tribals, he should ensure that whatever the Union tribal affairs ministry has planned for tribal developmen­t in Jharkhand is implemente­d, which is not happening right now,” Oraon said without giving any negative comment on the Supreme Court order.