ISSUE DATE: December 21, 2020
UPDATED: December 11, 2020 21:30 IST
Political muscle, Members of the Sarna community demanding the
passage of the Sarna Adivasi Code in Ranchi
Over the past three weeks, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s busy tour schedule has shown an enduring theme: an outreach to tribal communities. From promoting existing government schemes to announcing new ones, as well as more obvious attempts to appear ‘tribal friendly’, such as an announcement that November 15, the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, a freedom fighter from the Munda tribe, would henceforth be celebrated as ‘tribal pride day’, Chouhan’s outreach makes it clear that this demographic has become increasingly important to the saffron party’s political calculations.