Tribals hold mega rally demanding Sarna code

Ranchi: Thousands of tribal men, women, children and the elderly from across Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal held a mega rally at Ranchi’s Morhabadi Ground on Sunday and threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha election of 2024 if the Sarna faith is not included as a separate religion code for the indigenous people during the next census.The huge number of protesters congregated at the Morhabadi Ground under the banner of the Rashtriya Adivasi Samaj Dharm Raksha Abhiyan (RASDRA) even tribal organisations from the neighbouring states and even Assam joined in.Donning traditional tribal attires, the protesters assembled as their leaders asserted that Sarna was essential for getting a distinct identity for the indigenous people of the country.Bandhan Tigga, a tribal leader from Jharkhand, said, “The tribal communities have been demanding a separate religious code for the practitioners of the Sarna faith for many years now. There are close to seven crore indigenous people who are followers of the Sarna faith nationwide. If the government does not declare Sarna as a separate religion, we will boycott the next year’s Lok Sabha election.”Karma Oraon, another tribal activist, said a mega rally will be held in New Delhi later this year to raise the pitch for their demands. Besides tribal people from neighbouring states, separate tribal delegations from Nepal and Bhutan also arrived in Ranchi and took part in the rally, he said.Balku Oraon, a tribal activist from the state, said while the BJP-led government at the Centre was positioning itself as a champion of tribal rights, it was doing pretty much nothing to address one of the longest-standing demands of the community.Notably, the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha had in November 2021 unanimously passed a resolution and sent it to the Centre, demanding the provisioning of a separate Sarna code for the indigenous people in the next census.In February, the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal brought in a motion to recognise the Sarna religious code and the assembly passed it in a bid to consolidate the tribal votes of her state.