SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, June 23: Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda today said that former Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu’s nomination by the BJP for the top constitutional job is a proud moment for the Adivasis, said to be ‘original inhabitants’ in the country. “It has a civilisational importance,” he added.
Arjun Munda, the three-term chief minister of Jharkhand, said, “Her nomination should not be seen as tokenism or an ornamental decision by the BJP. The Adivasis have not migrated to India. They are the sons and daughters of the soil. It has a larger implication for Indian policy,” he pointed out.
“Earlier, everybody got an opportunity to tell (the tribals how to improve). Now, for the first time, an “original inhabitant’ has got an opportunity to listen and play the role of a constitutional head of the country(Abhi tak sabko kahney ka mauka mila hai, pahli baar sunane ka mauka diya hai ,” he told this writer. “This is unprecedented,” the minister added.
Munda said that the BJP decision to nominate Droupadi Murmu had elevated the dignity and respect of the tribal communities across the country.
The Tribal Affairs Minister said it is aimed at removing an old narrative of the ‘tribal non-tribal’ divide. “This is the display of the traditional Hindu ethos of inclusive and harmonious national development which is part and parcel of Hindutva,” he added.
He said that this is the new India and age-old Hindustan is making a civilisational statement of Sanatana Dharma.
Citing an example, he pointed out that the Santhals never had any major problem with the pre -colonial rulers of India. “It was the British rule that ruthlessly exploited them. As a result, the Santhal rebellion happened in 1855 to be led by Sidhu Murmu and Kanu Murmu,” he said.
“It was the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government which had honoured the memories of Sidhu Murmu and Kanu Murmu who had led the Santhal Rebellion against the British,” he signed off.
Incidentally, Munda’s perspective on Droupadi Murmu’s nomination for ‘undoing the historical injustice’ meted out to “original inhabitants’ of India echoed a similar call given by Jaipal Singh, the most vocal representative of Adivasis in the Constituent Assembly of India, on December 19 1946.
“I rise to speak on behalf of unknown hordes – yet very important – of unrecognised warriors of freedom, the original people of India who have variously been known as backward tribes, primitive tribes, criminal tribes and everything else, Sir, I am proud to be a ‘Jangli’… You cannot teach Democracy to the tribal people: you have to learn democratic ways from them. They are the most democratic people on earth,” Jaipal Singh Munda, who belonged to Khunti district in Jharkhand, had said.
Incidentally, Arjun Munda represents the Khunti parliament seat in the Lok Sabha and has adopted Jaipal Singh Munda’s ancestral village Takara for development.
