Shah lends an ear, promises succour to tribals who boycotted assembly polls

Bettiah: Union home minister Amit Shah has responded with alacrity to address the distress over inadequate development and persistent hardships that led the predominantly tribal Tharu and Oraon communities from 22 villages in the Doon valley of West Champaran to boycott the recently concluded Bihar assembly elections.“Amit Shah ji took immediate cognizance. He asked if I could get a delegation of the aggrieved tribals to meet him in Delhi after the polls,” Union minister of state for coal and mines Satish Chandra Dubey told this newspaper. Dubey said he had briefed Shah about the proposed boycott during the home minister’s rally in Narkatiaganj. Now a Rajya Sabha MP, Dubey earlier represented the area in the Lok Sabha. The boycott surprised many, as the Tharus and Oraons, who live in and around the Valmiki Tiger Reserve, have been considered loyal NDA supporters since they were granted scheduled tribe status during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led govt in 2003. The region has also seen visible development under CM Nitish Kumar’s “double engine” govt over the past two decades.Ajeya Sharma Rai, BJP general secretary from Bagaha, who has been active in the tribal belt, accompanied a small delegation to Dubey’s residence in New Delhi. Shah soon granted them an audience. “They have been our loyal supporters. Our NDA govt has brought in multiple schemes in the area, but this clearly stood out as a ‘dil mangey more’ situation,” Rai said.The discontent has deep roots. Until the late 1990s, the dense jungles of the Doon valley, largely inaccessible by road, had become a haven for kidnapping gangs and later Maoist insurgents. In 1995, a massacre of 18 Tharu tribals by a gang in Narkatia Doan village prompted the then CM Lalu Prasad to declare Bagaha a police district. Maoists later entrenched themselves in the area, even blowing up the Gobardhana police station building in 1999 and looting an armoury after attacking a police picket in 2000.After coming to power in 2005, Nitish focused on development in these forest villages, rolling out schemes that gradually turned the tribals into a reliable NDA vote-bank. What, then, triggered the boycott?During a visit to the area, this newspaper saw posters calling for an election boycott and heard repeated accounts of poor infrastructure and patchy delivery of welfare schemes. Residents cited the absence of all-weather roads, bridges over streams, electricity, healthcare, education and communication facilities. One incident frequently recalled was that of a pregnant woman being carried on a tractor-trolley to a distant hospital who was swept away while crossing a swollen river.A set of petitions outlining these demands was submitted to Shah by the delegation led by Dubey and Rai. Notably, the demands included upgrading mobile connectivity through Starlink or other govt-approved services. “Our handicaps are enhanced by lack of poor network,” Ram Krishna Kaji of Bankatwa Doan, who was part of the delegation, said. “Amit Shah ji assured us that our concerns will be fully addressed,” he added.Shah’s prompt intervention has also eased concerns about a possible Maoist return to the jungles. In July 2020, a joint team of the Bihar Police STF and the SSB’s small action team killed four Maoists in an encounter near Chautha Nala, seizing a laptop and Maoist literature. One of those killed was a local Tharu youth, highlighting the fragile balance between development, alienation and security in the region.