BJP vs Left Front #2: What’s the Record for Land Titles Given to Tribals?

For the upcoming Assembly elections in Tripura, BJP has struck up an alliance with the separatist tribal outfit Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT). The attempt is to draw the tribal voters towards itself by pretending to be standing for tribal rights. Apart from the fact that the IPFT hardly represents the interests of the tribals and only has a violent history of fighting for a separate state and mostly attacking people from tribal communities itself, the BJP’s own record on how it treats tribals in the states where it rules, is shocking.

One of the most important measures for economic development of tribal communities is the Forest Rights Act (officially known as the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006). This law allows adivasis to get land titles to plots of land in forest areas that they have been traditionally tilling. Adivasis apply to local authorities who carry out due diligence and then sanction the land title to the family. The Act is completely implemented by State govts.

Tripura is ahead of all other BJP ruled states in terms of share of applications that have been settled and land titles awarded to applicants. According to the latest Status Report issued by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Tripura govt. awarded  land titles to 63% of all applicants under the FRA. Other major states with substantial tribal population and governed by BJP are lagging far behind. Gujarat, often held up as a model of development by PM Modi and his party managed to award titles to only 45% of applicants.

MP and Chhattisgarh, both with long serving BJP govts. could respectively distribute titles to only 44% and 40% adivasi family applicants. BJP-ruled Assam, Tripura’s neighbor in the North-East, had an abysmal record of distributing titles to just 38% of applicants.

In fact, Tripura has gone one step beyond the provisions of the Act by providing economic assistance to tribal families that have been given land titles. Often such awardees are very poor and unable to improve upon their farming practices. This leads to debt and even mortgaging of land. To prevent this from happening, Tripura’s Left Front govt. is the only state govt. in the country that is offering an economic assistance package to the families. Till date 93,349 such families have been given the package. Tripura state govt. appealed to the Centre to help it with this scheme but no help was given.

BJP’s tall talk of standing with the tribals is all hot air, as is the case with most of their declarations. Had they been serious about uplift of tribals in their own favorite states like Gujarat or MP they would have implemented the FRA with much more enthusiasm.

Clearly, people of Tripura have fared much better under the Left Front’s rule. This will reflect in the forthcoming elections too.