New Delhi: The Congress’s five guarantees under Adivasi Sankalp to ‘protect jal, jungle, zameen’ seeks to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) claims that tribal welfare has been one of the Modi government’s top priorities in the last decade.With the Congress announcing five guarantees under the plank of Adivasi Nyay to protect “jal, jungle, zameen” (water, forests, land) to give Adivasis “their rightful dues”, the party has pushed to the forefront the issue of tribal welfare and social justice — an issue that has also been a special focus of the BJP under prime minister Narendra Modi ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.On Tuesday (March 12), Congress MP Rahul Gandhi during his ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Maharashtra’s Nandurbar said that Adivasis “have not been given their proportionate share according to their 8% population of the country”.The Congress said that the five guarantees named “Adivasi Sankalp” will include a national mission for effective implementation of the Forest Rights Act through a dedicated forest rights division, a separate budget and action plans, including settling pending FRA claims.It has also promised to withdraw all amendments made by the Modi government to forest conservation and land acquisition acts, and notify all habitations or groups of habitations where Scheduled Tribes (STs) are the largest social group as scheduled areas, and enact state laws in conformity with Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (PESA).It also promised to extend its promise of a legal status to MSP (Minimum Support Price) to cover minor forest produce. In addition, it said that it will revive the Scheduled Caste Plan and the Scheduled Tribe Sub Plan and make it enforceable by law as it is in Congress-ruled states like Karnataka and Telangana.Gandhi said that while the Congress considers Adivasis as the original owners of the land of the country, the BJP sees them only as vanvasi or forest dwellers.“The word Adivasi means the original owners of the land of this country. When there was no one, Adivasis were there in this country. You are the original owners. Vanvasi means those who live in forests. The difference between ‘vanvasi’ and ‘adivasi’ is that with the word ‘adivasi’, right to land, water and jungle are linked. But with ‘vanvasi’, there are no such rights. That is why BJP calls you ‘vanvasi’ and we call you ‘adivasi’,” he said.Later addressing a press conference at his residence in New Delhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Congress is committed to protecting “jal, jungle, zameen.”“They (Adivasis) are being harassed, their land is being taken away, they are made to work as bonded labour. We will ensure, through this guarantee, to free them from all this. We are committed to protecting jal, jungle, zameen,” he said.The guarantees announced by the party, follows its renewed push for social justice since last year, in which it has called for a nationwide caste census and accused the BJP of crony capitalism and protecting the interests of big business owners like Gautam Adani over those of the Adivasis.“When land has to be acquired, it will be Adivasis, if water has to be acquired it will be yours, if forests have to be taken it will be yours. There is no share for Adivasis. There are no Adivasi owners in private schools, hospitals. Despite the Adivasi population being 8% there are no rights. We want to change this,” said Gandhi.Course correctionThe Congress has been pushing for a nationwide caste census since last year, and promised to conduct the survey if it is voted to power in the 2023 assembly elections.But the results of the elections in the three Hindi heartland states — Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan — which together comprise about 31% of the country’s tribal population showed that the BJP had reversed the Congress’s gains among the tribal population.For instance, the BJP, which won just 19 of the 76 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates in MP and Chhattisgarh in 2018, managed to bag 44 in 2023. In Rajasthan, the BJP won 13 of the 25 reserved seats for Scheduled Tribes as against nine in 2018.When asked if the party is attempting to course correct from the 2023 assembly elections, Kharge said that the party’s main aim is to bring Adivasis to the “mainstream”.“It is not like that. Our intention is to remove poverty, improve their economic status. Our main aim is to educate them and bring them to the mainstream. We don’t fake work, we do real work and that is why after independence there are so many people who are educated in the country,” he said.The Congress’s push for Adivasi justice is facing a formidable challenge in the form of the BJP, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself highlighting his government’s focus on Adivasis in election rallies in the runup to the December assembly elections as well as in recent months.BJP’s special focus on tribal welfareOn January 15, Modi released the first instalment of Rs 540 crore to one lakh beneficiaries of a rural housing scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM-JANMAN) scheme.Earlier the union cabinet had approved a budget of over Rs 24,000 crore for the scheme which focuses on 11 critical interventions related to nine key aligned ministries/departments.The scheme aims to reach 22,000 PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) majority tribal habitations and PVTG families in 200 districts across the country and provide basic facilities such as road and telecom connectivity, electricity, safe housing, clean drinking water and sanitation, improved access to education, health and nutrition and sustainable livelihood opportunities.While releasing the first instalment in January, Modi said that ten years of his government have been dedicated to the poor. He also credited India’s first tribal President Droupadi Murmu for her guidance, and said that as someone who comes from the community she spoke about the issues in her interactions with him.Earlier this month, Modi once again highlighted the scheme at his rallies in Odisha and West Bengal and said that tribal welfare has been one of the top priorities of his government in the last decade.Various tribal communities of Odisha are primitive… Nobody bothered to work for them before. For the first time, the Modi govt took the initiative of PM-JANMAN Yojana worth Rs. 24,000 crore for them.Local street vendors now get benefits under the PM SVANIDHI Yojana.Our… pic.twitter.com/qhYNYA9ND6— BJP (@BJP4India) March 5, 2024Other schemes that the Modi government has sought to highlight in its focus for Adivasis is the Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) to provide education to ST students through residential schools setup in 2019 under the National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS).According to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for the economic empowerment of the tribal community, its budgetary allotment has been increased from Rs 4295.94 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 12461.88 crore in 2023-24. According to an analysis by PRS Legislative Research, budgetary allocation for Scheduled Tribes in the interim budget 2024-25 has increased by 10.8% in comparison to 2023-24 and that of Scheduled Castes has also increased by 12.8%.According to a February 2023 report by the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights – Dalit Arthik Adhikar Andolan, an advocacy group for Dalit and Adivasi rights based in Delhi, the targeted budgetary allocations for tribals should ideally be 8.2% of the allocations for central and centrally-sponsored schemes. However, it remained between 2.5% in 2018-19 and 3.6% in 2022-23, dropping even lower to 1.7% in 2023-24.The group analysed budgetary allocations and found for instance that Rs 2895.94 crore from Dalit and Adivasi budgets under the Ministry of Labour and Employment were diverted towards general schemes, in violation of the SC/ST sub plans. The report also noted that allocations which were supposed to serve the SCs and STs welfare were “diverted majorly under the non-targeted schemes which seldom reach the community”.A CAG performance audit report of the tribal sub-plan for the period 2011-2012 to 2013-14 noted the diversion of funds from SC/ST sub plans and recommended that the Centre should ensure that such funds which are non-divertable are not diverted to other schemes.The Modi government has also not performed well on welfare measures including in giving land titles to Adivasis in accordance with the Forest Rights Act, and increasing crimes against Adivasis as has been reported by The Wire.‘View Adivasis through Adivasi lens’According to Adivasi activists and grassroot workers, while both the parties may have made promises for the community, they do not view the community from an “Adivasi lens”.Veteran tribal leader and former Union minister Arvind Netam, who quit the Congress last year to float his own political outfit, the Hamar Raj Party said, “No matter what the BJP or the prime minister may say, my complaint is that the BJP looks at the Adivasi community with its own lens.”“The day it starts viewing the Adivasis through the Adivasi lens, the party can do a lot for the community,” he added.Referring to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s statement that for every rupee spent by the government, only 15 paise reaches the downtrodden, Netam said there is a need to know how much of the sanctioned money is reaching the tribal communities.“We want to know how much of the sanctioned money is reaching the last mile in tribal areas and accordingly planning should be done and stakeholders should be invited to understand what the community wants, which New Delhi has not bothered to understand,” he said.Also read: Five Ways In Which Hemant Soren and Jharkhand Are Carving a New National Agenda for Adivasi PoliticsJacinta Kerketta, independent journalist and activist based in Jharkhand, said that the two parties suffer from a Brahmincal mindset.“There are many people with the same Brahministic or dominant mentality in both the Congress and the BJP. Therefore they look at the tribal society through the same lens. These (leaders) keep jumping from one party to another with ease. If we look at the political history of both the parties in tribal areas, they have badly harmed the tribal society.“Due to lack of alternatives, the tribal society has been swinging between these parties in elections. And even today they have not been able to protect the interests of the tribal society,” she said.Kerketta said that Gandhi has shown interest in trying to understand the issues of the people at the grassroot level.“Therefore, the guarantees given by the Congress regarding the tribal society before the Lok Sabha elections will definitely be welcomed by the tribals. Because these are very important guarantees to address the fears of the loss of jal, jungle, zameen. If the tribals have even a little hope, it is only from the Congress and the INDIA alliance.”Kerketta said that the BJP has used its financial resources to “buy” leaders in states like Jharkhand while using its organisational strength to get votes.“One BJP worker is attached behind every voter and every house in villages. BJP workers also ensure that every villager casts their vote. In such circumstances, the Adivasi community votes for the BJP in the hope that those who have money power and contacts will at least work for the community,” she said.Move beyond symbolismKerketta said that while the Adivasi community was happy with Murmu being made president — a move that is hailed by the BJP as tribal empowerment — as well as Tribal Pride Day to commemorate the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, the president’s silence on the ethnic conflict in Manipur as well as incidents of violence against women left the community disappointed.“If we look deeper, it will become clear that the character of domination has always been that by giving something to someone or by instilling a sense of pride in them, they are separated from being made accountable to their own communities. In reality, the BJP has never been ready to give rights to the tribals because they don’t think that they should have a share in self rule or governance,” she said.“They have also continued to create divisions in tribal communities on the ground in the name of religion, breaking the unity among these communities for many years and have even kept many tribals as their foot soldiers by positing Muslims or the Congress as a threat.“In order to ward off any rebellion, someone from the community is given a position or an award. But they have done little to end their own domination and provide for better education for tribals, to enable them to stand up as better leaders in society, to strengthen their share in economic resources. At such a time, it is a welcome step that the Congress is showing concern for the fundamental rights of the tribals,” she said.‘Congress lacks sincerity’However, Netam said that though the Congress may be making promises for Adivasi justice, history shows its lack of sincerity.“Take for example the PESA law that we brought to Parliament in 1996 in the aftermath of the 1991 liberalisation to protect tribal area. The law said that even if the government wants land in tribal areas, it has to ask for consent from the Gram Sabhas. No Congress government since then has sincerely implemented the PESA law properly. Rahul Gandhi can make these promises now but his party’s past history shows that it lacks sincerity. Even during the 2023 assembly elections, did they ever mention PESA even once?”Kerketta said that along with assessing how schemes are benefitting tribals on the ground, political parties need to focus on social exploitation.“Apart from the economic exploitation, how can the social exploitation be reduced along with the security for jal, jungle, zameen? If the political parties keep this in mind, then it will help the tribal society to join the mainstream, come within the system, and get work which will open avenues for them to contribute to society,” she said.