With the Jharkhand elections round the corner, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has stirred the simmering cauldron of identity politics by promising to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes to power in the State. Releasing his party’s election manifesto for the State on Sunday, Shah held up the example of Uttarakhand as the perfect model for the implementation of UCC, which has otherwise been a divisive issue in the country. Knowing that well, Shah reassured the voters that the large, indigenous tribal population of the state would be kept out of the ambit of the UCC.
Shah’s political arrows, dipped in this dangerous – one could even say venomous – mix, hit multiple targets in the run-up to the State polls. In the same breath as the UCC, Shah also raised the familiar and tested bogey of the ‘Bangladeshi infiltrator’, which the BJP brings out of its bag before almost every election at the State or national level. In Jharkhand, these supposed infiltrators are reportedly grabbing land and also marrying tribal women to violate their rights. He promised a law against land-grabbing and promised to return the land “that has been snatched from women”. Shah also accused the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led State government of appeasement politics and “patronising Bangladeshi infiltrators”. Chief Minister Hemant Soren was silent on all these ills because the ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’ were his vote bank, Shah thundered.
By raising the issue of the ‘infiltrator’, Shah is playing on the most deep-rooted insecurities of the tribal population of the State. Over the years, one of the biggest cultural crises of the State’s indigenous communities is the gradual denuding and homogenisation of tribal life and practices, and the slow but sure move of the younger generation towards modern-day life and its entrapments. What Shah cleverly does is deflect the needle of this crisis away from the far larger hegemonic influence of Hindi heartland mainstream culture, and focus it towards the ‘outsider’ Bangladeshi – the speaker of a non-local, and it that sense foreign, tongue, Bengali, and an adherent of a non-indigenous religious practice.
The question of the ‘Bangladesh infiltrator’ and the sum total of the political dividends it pays off is a matter of a lot of research and quite a bit of guesswork. It worked very well in Assam, where the UCC and the ensuing identity politics helped BJP strengthen its grip on the ground, splitting votes along religious lines and keeping it in power for two consecutive terms. In Jharkhand’s neighbouring State of West Bengal, however, the ‘infiltrator’ bogey has worked in the BJP’s favour only partially and that too in the border districts, where the question of cross-border infiltration from Bangladesh is a real and present danger. However, in the rest of Bengal, it’s a case of diminishing political returns, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has successfully fended off the BJP challenge with her strong support among the local populace across the State.
At one level, and especially to an outsider, the question of the cross-border ‘infiltrator’ in Jharkhand – a State with no international borders – might seem disingenuous on the part of Shah. But the fact remains that this bogey may reap dividends for the BJP and this is evident from the reaction of the JMM. Within hours of Shah’s remarks, Chief Minister Soren hit out at him, claiming that most of the infiltration happens in States ruled by the BJP. He also sought to know the logic behind the Centre granting political asylum to Sheikh Hasina, the deposed Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and asked if there was an “internal understanding” between Hasina and the Indian government.
From the decibel levels of both sides at political rallies, it is obvious that identity politics will play a big part in deciding who sits on the Chief Minister’s chair in the State. BJP has also made a barrage of other pre-election promises, from cheap cooking gas for women, to a higher OBC quota. The UCC – whichever way it swings the electorate – is sure to open a Pandora’s Box in Jharkhand, which was carved out of Bihar in November 2000 on the basis of the tribal identity of the indigenous population. Almost 14 years to the date since the State was formed, the people of Jharkhand will have to decide if they will still allow identity to become the single most important factor in these elections, or look at other issues such as price rise, jobs, healthcare and better infrastructure while casting their vote.