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Tribals look beyond lotus, hand

Anita Joshua

Congress and BJP are wooing the tribals
Christians keeping a wary watch on the campaigning

JHABUA (M.P.): After holding the ‘hand’ aloft for decades and then allowing the ‘lotus’ to bloom for the last few years, the Bhil tribals of Malwa are now up against the same question voters elsewhere are faced with: Is there any difference between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress?

Offering an alternative, several independents have joined the fray, queering the pitch for the main contenders and preparing the ground for the possible emergence of a Bhil leadership outside the Congress and the BJP in the not-so-distant future. For, unlike the Gonds who have formed the Gondwana Gantantra Party, the Bhils are yet to organise themselves politically.

For now, however, the fight is between the Congress and the BJP, with both parties pulling out all the stops to woo the tribals, who account for 85.68 per cent of the population. Both parties have flown in key campaigners, leaving the tribals rather confused as the two claim credit for the development that has come to the district, particularly the roads.

Roads and power

The Congress claim is that the roads are a result of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, while the BJP says it is the State government which made it possible – adding that the central scheme was launched by the Vajpayee dispensation.

All that Badiya Gundiya of Badwali village knows is that the road was laid over a year ago and this is the first election after that.

Further, the power situation has improved. “No, not that there are no power cuts; there are long ones too but there is a schedule and we can plan our lives accordingly.”

That the State government has pumped in funds for development over the past two years is something even Christian missionaries do not deny as they keep a wary watch on the campaigning. “The BJP knows that public memory is short and began work systematically in time for these elections. They even made Nirmala Bhuria — daughter of the former Congressman, Dileep Singh Bhuria, and sitting MLA from Petlawad — a Minister some months ago.”

Also, the State government has conceded a long-pending demand of the people of Alirajpur for a separate district. The Jobat Assembly segment was also carved out of Jhabua and added to the newly formed district, which remains difficult to access through patchwork roads.

But the locals are far from happy with the sitting MLAs — all five segments in the undivided Jhabua had voted the BJP last time. Be it in the town or far-flung villages, the chorus is the same: “Dikhe nahi paanch saal mein [Haven’t seen them in five years].”

Admittedly, BJP supporters, a group of elders of Agral village in the Thandla Assembly segment, said if Kal Singh Bhabhar was voted back, it would be because of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. But they say it will not be easy because Congress candidate Vir Singh Bhuria has been a popular panchayat president.

If the reputation of the sitting MLAs is working against the BJP, whatever advantage it may have given to the Congress is being negated by the presence of a rebel in Petlawad and the high command’s decision to shift district Congress committee president Kalawati Bhuria from the Jhabua segment in favour of a Christian, Xavier Meda, to Thandla. She opted out. Though she is campaigning, there is talk of a sulk factor.

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