‘No illegal influx in Santhal Pargana, BJP claim baseless’

Ranchi: Two civil rights groups based in Jharkhand on Friday claimed that BJP’s contention of changing demography in the tribal-dominated districts of Santhal Pargana division by illegal Bangladeshi influx is false and the saffron party made the charges with an intention to “create communal divide ahead of the assembly election”.
According to the the two groups — Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha and Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan — the Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act was being violated in this region and the tribals are selling their land through donation deeds and informal transactions to non-tribals, which mostly include Hindus and Muslims.
Based on their fact-finding mission in the division on August 22 and 23, the groups said there was no instance of illegal immigration. They demanded that the govt implement the SPT Act, act against policemen who thrashed tribal college students recently, disband grievance systems established by administrations to report Bangladeshi infiltration and conduct a high-level enquiry to study the economic condition of tribals in the area.
“The fact-finding team also visited KKM College (where cops thrashed tribal students on July 27) and Gopinathpur (where a dispute over Bakrid sacrifice led to clashes between Hindu communities of Gopinathpur and Muslim communities from the adjoining Murshidabad district of West Bengal) and spoke to the students, victims, accused, village heads, local activists between August 22 and 23,” said Elina Horo, a member of the fact-finding team.
BJP, including its regional and national leaders like Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, has been claiming that Bangladeshi infiltrators have settled down illegally in Santhal Pargana by marrying tribal girls and usurping vast tracts of land. They have also claimed that the Muslim population has increased manifold in the region since 2019. But, CM Hemant Soren rubbished BJP’s claims at a function recently and asked Sarma what he was doing to stop the influx of immigrants through Assam.
The groups claimed their fact-finding team did not come across any Bangladeshi infiltrator or anyone who had seen one. “In Gaibathan, the clash between a Muslim and a tribal family took place over a land parcel, which has been in dispute for 30 years,” said Tom Kawla, another member of the team.
The groups argued that BJP’s claims in the media and Parliament on the issue were false. “Between 1951 and 2011, the tribal population grew by 8.7 lakh while Hindu and Muslim populations increased by 24 lakh and 13.6 lakh. The poor growth rate and the dwindling number of tribals are caused by malnourishment, insufficient healthcare and economic hardships, purchase of land by other communities, and migration,” the fact-finding team claimed.