BJP, RSS eye Banjara Mahakumbh to build ties with nomadic groups

The BJP and the RSS have intensified their outreach to the marginalsied communities ahead of the upcoming round of assembly polls and the general elections in 2024.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), are banking on the six-day Banjara Mahakumbh that began in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon on Wednesday to build ties with nomadic communities spread across Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh.

These communities are counted among the most backward and over 265 such communities have not been able to benefit from caste-based quotas in government jobs and educational institutions, a government-appointed panel known as the Idate Commission submitted in 2018. (HT)

The BJP and the RSS have intensified their outreach to the marginalsied communities ahead of the upcoming round of assembly polls and the general elections in 2024.

These communities are counted among the most backward and over 265 such communities have not been able to benefit from caste-based quotas in government jobs and educational institutions, a government-appointed panel known as the Idate Commission submitted in 2018.

According to a Sangh functionary, the event spread over four days is likely to be attended by an estimated one million people. Senior RSS leader and former general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis will attend the event.

“Since these nomadic communities are susceptible to religious conversion and there have been reports of missionaries carrying out conversion through inducement and force, the Sangh has been particularly interested in reaching out to them,” said the Sangh functionary.

The outreach also comes ahead of elections in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana where nomadic communities are present in significant numbers.

In Madhya Pradesh, where the nomadic tribes are about 7-8% of the electorate, there was unrest among the communities over the proposed National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizenship (NRC).

“Members of the community agitated, fearing that in the absence of a permanent address or other residential proof they might face detention,” said a BJP leader.

The government is yet to begin work on the NRC and the NPR.

In Karnataka, with an eye on wooing the 51 nomadic tribes in the state, the government has announced the setting up of a Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Nomadic Communities Development Board for their welfare.

In Telanagana, where the BJP is in opposition, the party has been demanding the inclusion of nomadic tribes in the most backward category for being able to receive quota benefits.

To be sure, the Union government is yet to make appointments to the board for the development and welfare of denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities (DNCs), announced in February 2019.