Trans Giri tract villagers’ demand for tribal status, a far-off dream

kKS Tomar

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s election promise in an election rally at Nahan in 2014 to accord tribal status to hundreds of villages of Trans Giri areas of Sirmur district remains a myth, as the Centre has failed to fulfil its assurance, though it has already completed more than four and a half years in office.

Now yet another general election will be held in 2019 and nobody knows how will the BJP defend Union Home Minister for the inordinate delay and non-fulfilment of his promise?  

BJP leaders from Himachal, including Virender Kashyap, BJP MP, Baldev Singh Tomar, former MLA, and leaders of Hati Samiti, an organisaiton fighting for the rights of villagers for decades met Prime Minister Narendra Modi a few months ago. Modi assured the delegation that justice would be done with Giripar areas people who deserve tribal status on the basis of socio-economic backwardness.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur recently apprised the Union Home Minister of the long-standing demand of the Trans Giri tract on the analogy of Uttarakhand areas, which have been enjoying tribal status for decades.

It is an established fact that there are complete similarities in social backwardness, poverty and illiteracy between the people of the Trans Giri areas and Uttarakahnd tribal villages, yet successive governments at the Centre did nothing to remove this blatant discrimination and injustice?

The Giripar areas have got 126 panchayts comprising Shillai, Renuka, Rajgarh, Kamrau, Nohra, Paonta tehsil’s Nagheta, Banor, Danda Kala Amb, Rajpur, Khaodri, Gorkhuwala, Doverisalwala, Bahngani, etc, spread over 1,299 sq km with a population of 1,01,742 and 90 per cent of them belong to the Hatee community.

Political observers feel the Trans Giri tract people ought to have been declared tribal along with the Babar Janusar people of undivided Uttar Pradesh (now in Uttarakhand). Late Dr YS Parmar was a towering personality from Sirmaur but it will remain a secret for ages why did he and other politicians of the district fail to make efforts to convince the Government of India to accord tribal status to people of these areas? Experts say one- line resolution from the state Assembly would have sufficed to achieve this goal.

Other backward areas in Himachal fall in Kangra district where Chhota Bengal and Bada Bengal and Pandra Bishi villages of Rampur in Shimla district also deserve tribal status. Jeet Singh Thakur, former general secretary of the Hatee samiti for 20 years, is a dejected person today. Thakur argued that the BJP government at the Centre would not accord tribal staus to our people. According to legal requirement, it was essential to amend the Constitution of India’s 5th schedule to give tribal status to these areas of Girirpar. He said “the Centre may cheat our people by declaring these areas as backward, which will mean nothing. The government had already placed the Trans Giri tract under the backward areas category and special assistance was provided for two decades under the Backward Areas Grant Funds (BAGF). According to the Constitution, it is mandatory to declare a community as a Scheduled Tribe, which is an ongoing process. The essential characteristics of communities to qualify for the ST status include primitive traits, geographical isolation, distinct culture, shy of contact with another community at large, economically backwardness, etc, criteria which are completely fulfilled by the people of the Giripar areas in Sirmaur district.

Kashyap, BJP MP, explains that Kinnaur, Bharmaur and Lahaul Spiti were declared tribal areas on the basis of regional identity. The Babar Jaunsar areas of Uttarakhand were declared as tribes, which have got complete cultural, social and customs similarities with people of the Giripar areas in Sirmaur, which must also get this status. Kashyap said the Tribal Department of the government has recently sent an updated report to the Centre and pleaded with it to declare Hatee as a community comprising a group of castes.

Five-time Congress MLA from Shillai Harshvardhan Chauhan feels that Lok Sabha elections are drawing close hence BJP is indulging in a political gimmick to mislead the innocent villagers. Chauhan says the BJP has cheated people and the Union Home Minister made a false promise during the general election five years ago to give the tribal status to the Trans Giri tract areas, which was selfishly aimed at garnering their support to win the Shimla Lok Sabha seat.

Shockingly, DO No 8/1/2017-SS (Himachal Pradesh) of Registrar General and Census Commissioner India, Ministry of Home Affairs, said “facts furnished by the HP government have been examined. The Registrar General does not support the proposal to grant Tribal status to the Giripar areas hence forwarding it to the Tribal Ministry to take appropriate action in this regard.”

As things stand today, political will power to accord tribal status to villagers of the Trans Giri tract is completely lacking hence it seems to be a dream to achieve this goal, which ought to have been achieved along with the Babar Jaunsar areas of Uttarakhand in 1967.

Old and younger generations of these villages will never pardon successive governments of the Congress and the BJP in state and at the Centre for depriving the simple, backward and poor villagers of getting the tribal status to join the national mainstream.

(Writer is a senior journalist. Views are personal)