Amit Shah pledges Uniform Civil Code in Jharkhand, but tribals to be out of ambit

The BJP on Sunday unveiled its manifesto for the Jharkhand Assembly elections, pledging to deport every single infiltrator and the blanket exclusion of tribals from the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) it promised to implement in the state.

Home Minister Amit Shah made the key announcements, including the first-ever official statement on the BJP’s stand on tribals under the UCC regime. “The Uttarakhand UCC model is before the country. Tribal customs, laws and traditions have been fully excluded from it. Wherever the BJP brings the UCC, we will exclude tribals from its ambit,” Shah said, attacking Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren for his “propaganda that the BJP would dilute tribal customs by implementing the UCC in the state”.

Jobs, doles, houses in bjp’s 25-point poll manifesto

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Rs 2,100 grant to women by 11th of each month

Rs 500 per LPG cylinder and free cylinder on Diwali, Rakhi

5 lakh jobs for youth in five years

Rs 2,000 monthly unemployment allowance for youth

21 lakh houses for poor in 5 years

Tribal count declining

Under the Soren govt, tribals are not safe. In Santhal Pargana, tribal population is constantly declining. Infiltrators are marrying our daughters and capturing their land. Amit Shah, home minister

‘BJP’s polarisation bid’

The Congress said it’s clear from the BJP manifesto that its only campaign issue is “polarisation and the spread of the communal virus”

Targeting Soren for allegedly undermining Jharkhand tribal identity by allowing “unbridled infiltration for vote bank”, Shah said the BJP government, if elected, would bring a law to stop the transfer of tribal land to immigrants and to recover the land already taken. “This law will have retrospective effect,” the Home Minister said, adding that the JMM-led INDIA bloc government was in denial mode about the “infiltration that was altering the state’s demography by causing a decline in tribal population”.

“The Jharkhand High Court asked the JMM government to detect and deport infiltrators, but they said on oath that they won’t do it. Why don’t their district collectors ever report infiltration to the police? In Bengal and Jharkhand, infiltration continues unabated because local administrations are patronising it. In Assam where the BJP rules, infiltration has stopped. When the BJP comes to power in Jharkhand, we will find every single infiltrator and deport them (ek ek ko chun chun ke bahar nikaalenge),” said Shah, framing the BJP’s election promises in the state around the slogan “Roti, Beti, Maati” (livelihood, women and land).

The manifesto, released in Ranchi, makes 25 major promises to the people, including Rs 2,100 cash transfer to women by the 11th of every month; Rs 2,000 unemployment allowance for youth; five lakh jobs in five years; gas cylinder at Rs 500 and one cylinder each free on Diwali and Raksha Bandhan.

Asked to respond to the opposition’s charges that the BJP, which used to criticise “guarantee politics”, was now itself resorting to it, Shah said, “The people of Jharkhand are in a very dismal state. Our guarantees are not sops. These are stairs needed to pull people out of the abyss.”

In a dig at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the BJP star campaigner said, “I am grateful to Mr Kharge for accepting that the Congress governments have failed to deliver on their poll guarantees. The Jharkhand people should review Mr Kharge’s remarks and see whether the JMM and the Congress-led governments have fulfilled their promises. The BJP, on the other hand, is the only party that does what it says.”

Shah also reminded Jharkhand that Droupadi Murmu, former state Governor, was the first President from the tribal community. The BJP’s key poll strategist also flagged corruption in the state, asking people if they had ever seen Rs 350 crore together in one go—as recovered from a ruling alliance MP’s premises. He accused the Soren government of stalling central projects for the fear of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity and said while the Congress-led UPA had given Rs 84,000 crore to Jharkhand in 10 years of its rule, the Modi government gave over Rs 3 lakh crore from 2014 to 2024.

Jharkhand goes to the polls in two phases on November 13 and 20 and will see a fight between the ruling JMM-led INDIA bloc and the BJP-headed NDA.