The NDA's Tribal Jewel

Ameasure of the importance that the BJP-led government accords to the issue of tribal conversions, as also to the long-standing campaign by Hindu organisations to 'counter' missionary influence in tribal areas, can be gauged from the fact that Jual Oram is now in the cabinet. Looking after the newly-created ministry of tribal affairs, Oram's case is an outstanding example of sheer social engineering. Joining the BJP in '89 and winning an assembly seat in Orissa, Oram has in the course of a decade gone on to become the party's state president, BJP national secretary, the party's chief whip, member of Parliament and now a full-fledged cabinet minister, in charge of an issue that he is most familiar with. With the BJP-bjd coalition practically sweeping the Lok Sabha elections in Orissa, Oram's rewards have came sooner than expected.

"I thought I would be made a minister, but a cabinet berth came from the blue," says Oram. But he's not letting that stop him from enunciating a new vision. The minister emphasises that the Vajpayee government, by creating a separate nodal ministry for tribes, has met a long-felt need that the welfare of India's jungle people be taken out of the routine social welfare and social empowerment mode and be included in a more specific term of reference. Could there be a link between the saffron obsession with tribal conversions and the creation of a larger ministry for their upkeep? Could it be true that a separate ministry has come into being at the promptings of the rss, which holds the tribal issue very dear to its heart? Or is it because Oram belongs to a state whose rural fabric is under increasing pressure from a fairly violent tribal-convert divide, the killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines epitomising this dichotomy?

According to Oram, the missionary issue has been deliberately misrepresented by political parties and blown out of all proportions by the media. "There is no doubt that Christian missionaries have done great service in the field of education and health. That simply cannot be denied. The trouble arises when they start meddling around with the religious practices of the tribes. That leads to tensions. I think people are not going to tolerate it."

As for the rss-Church divide, which seems to be gathering a momentum of its own in some other parts of the country, the minister says that in a country the size of India, it is easy to form opinions without really going into specifics. "Take the Staines killings. It was purely a local issue. By the time it ended, it was an international one." He also has an interesting take on chief accused Dara Singh. "Is it not curious that no one can arrest him? After all, for years, he has worked actively for the Congress." But going back to his argument of ill-formed opinions, he says the alleged rape of nuns never took place in Madhya Pradesh, as later investigations revealed, while the incidents in Gujarat had a purely local flavour.

On the contrary, he says, there is no real problem with Christians. "In my constituency, Sundergarh, there are more than two lakh Christians. They have all voted for me, as is evident from the Lok Sabha results. I am a Hindu, but my first name is Christian, adopted from an old family friend. I can personally count among my hand-picked workers ardent Christians, who now appreciate the true worth of the BJP." Luckily, he says, the old myths of the BJP being just an upper caste 'Brahmin-Bania' party has been shattered, most notably during the latest elections. The old notion that tribals only vote for the Congress has just been done away with.

Points out Oram, a trained electrical engineer who worked with the public sector undertaking Bharat Heavy Electricals before the political bug bit him: "The Congress years are known for their tokenism. There were sops, an MP here and there, some odd post thrown like crumbs. This is the real thing." Tribals, he reckons, have a lot of self-respect. They rarely beg. They prefer to work, irrespective of age. "These social characteristics have been for long taken lightly," he says, only now has come the time to accentuate these strengths meaningfully.

However, now that a ministry is in place, its brief is, indeed a pretty daunting one. A mandatory press note issued by the new ministry says that it "will intensify activities aiming at acceleration of overall development of Scheduled Tribes. This ministry will in specific deal with subject matter of social security and social insurance with respect to STs, tribal welfare planning, project formulation, research, evaluation and training... The ministry will also focus attention on administration of scheduled areas, matters relating to autonomous districts of Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya. Besides this, it shall be the nodal ministry for overall policy."

How does he explain the saffron penetration into tribal areas? According to psephologists, the BJP-led alliance got a majority of the voteshare from the roughly 9 per cent of the total tribal population in the country (according to the '91 census). This, explains Oram, can be attributed to a definite tribal policy pursued by his party. "In Madhya Pradesh, we have Nandkumar Sai. In south Bihar, there is Babulal Marandi. The BJP has thrown up a new generation of tribal leaders, something that the others have singularly failed to achieve."

So does he back the creation of smaller tribals states carved out of larger provinces like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, or Uttar Pradesh, a Jharkhand or even a Vananchal? This, Oram explains, is not within the purview of his ministry but the general party policy promises smaller state units for better governance. "After all, if a district magistrate cannot even visit his tehsils once a year, what is the development that people are talking about?" he asks.

Not for Oram the stereotypes of starving tribals dancing away their blues in strange-looking headgear, showcased as India's 'tribal culture' at Republic Day parades in Delhi. He says that while it would be incorrect to say that no progress has taken place, its pace has been rather slow and sluggish. There have been tribal developmental plans in the past, but they need to be toned up. "While plans and programmes exist, they need to be implemented and implemented in right earnest. My job will be to ensure that the plans go right down the line."

Which is easier said than done. What, for instance, do you do with recalcitrant state governments? You could well have a chief minister wanting to settle scores or who simply does not agree with your line of action. "For that," says Oram with a grin, "we have our own party organisation that will do the needful. After all, I am not just a minister. I am also a politician."