On July 21, a video went viral of a saffron flag hoisted at the Ambagarh garrison ramparts being torn while it was being taken down. The flag was planted by local Hindutva outfits a week before and was taken down by the Rajasthan Adivasi Meena Sangh led by its president and independent MLA from Gangapur City, Ramkesh Meena. The Meenas were apparently angry at the Hindutva outfit’s attempt to appropriate a temple of Amba Mata Devi—a goddess revered by the tribal community—at the fort.
Soon, social media was agog with outraged comments from both sides, with some sections tying the events to a ‘sanatan saffron’ cause. Hindutva groups and fringe personalities, including Suresh Chavhanke, editor-in-chief of the controversial Sudarshan TV channel, precipitated matters with a call to the public to march to the fort to “reinstal the saffron flag with Jai Shri Ram written on it” on August 1. Realising the situation could turn explosive, FIRs were filed against both Chavhanke and Ramkesh Meena, the police was deployed and the fort was sealed.
Initially, the BJP kept off the controversy but after reports of a backlash from the Meena community, the party brought its MP and influential community leader Kirori Lal Meena into play. His first action was to attack Ramkesh Meena and the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government, saying they were trying to create a divide between the Hindus and the tribal Meena. He also declared that he would “unfurl a flag” at the fort. Despite heavy deployment of police all around, Kirori Lal, 69, and his men, braving the rains, climbed through the thick forest and unfurled the flag on the morning of August 1. But it wasn’t a saffron flag; it was a flag of the Meena community. That move left both sides stumped briefly, but the matter was soon back on the boil.
The whole issue started in June when it was reported that miscreants had damaged the idols at the temple and, subsequently, that new idols were installed. The initial suspicions focused on the local Muslim community and the police even detained some juveniles. Then, in July, it was reported that a saffron flag had been hoisted on a high mast installed in the fort.
That was when the Adivasi Meena Sangh decided enough was enough. There was already some resentment since when the idols were replaced—the original Meena deity, Amba Devi, had made way for the sanatan Ambika Devi.
The ruins of the Ambagarh fort, listed as an archaeological site, are said to be one of the last relics left of the Meena tribe that once ruled Jaipur and Amer before they were vanquished by the Kachawa Rajputs who founded the Jaipur dynasty a thousand years ago.
Ramkesh Meena says he had taken along the people who had installed the saffron flag to remove it amicably as they had “realised their mistake”. Jaipur police commissioner Anand Srivastava too confirmed this to INDIA TODAY. But after Chavhanke’s public dare, Ramkesh and his cohorts declared that “there can either be a Meena flag or a tricolour at the fort, but we will not allow an RSS-sponsored saffron flag”. Soon enough, many others joined the war of words with support for the Meena cause coming from even outside the state. Gujarat MLA and founder of the Bharat Tribal Party (BTP) Chhotubhai Vasava and Chandra Shekhar Azad of the Bhim Army were among those quite vocal in their support. Some leaders of the Jat and Gujjar communities too extended their support. BTP legislator from Chorasi in Rajasthan, Raj Kumar Roat, even highlighted a similar attempt in Salumbar in Udaipur district last year, where Hindutva forces had tried to “convert” a tribal temple in Sonarpahari.
Fearing a backlash, the BJP initially stayed silent on the issue. But party MLA and ex-minister Vasudev Devnani sees a bigger conspiracy. “A small section of the Meena is trying to separate the community from the Hindus; it’s part of a plan to unite the tribal population as a separate, non-Hindu entity. This is a ploy to weaken India…,” he says.
Both the Congress and the BJP have tried to downplay the episode but the tribal rights issue could become a political hot potato soon in Rajasthan. Right now, 25 of the 200 seats in the assembly are reserved for the Scheduled Tribes, and they influence the results in a dozen other seats. The Meena are the dominant tribal community here, one which has benefitted tremendously from the ST reservation in education and jobs. The community has huge clout in the bureaucracy and has little in common with the poverty-stricken tribes of southern Rajasthan.
The tribal rights issue has been brewing since March 9 when Youth Congress chief and tribal MLA Ganesh Ghogra, a confidant of Gehlot, created an uproar in the assembly by claiming that tribals have their own culture and the Hindu religion was being forced on them. The BJP has since asked the Congress to take a clear stand on whether it considers the tribals Hindus or not. Meanwhile, many others are now asking if non-Hindu tribals should get reservations in the first place. On March 13, another Congress MLA, Gopal Meena, and independent Ramkesh Meena demanded a separate national tribal religious code with a separate column in the census form at a Meena community conference in Jaipur.
The same day, the state BJP too upped the ante. At a seminar in Jaipur, Union minister Faggan Singh Kulaste waded in, calling the tribals sanatani Hindus, citing examples of similar religious customs and describing the Meena as “descendants of Vishnu”.
What is significant is the BTP, which stunned everyone by winning two seats in the last assembly poll, have hailed the demand for declaring tribals as non-Hindus and a separate code for them. The BTP has a love-hate relationship with the Congress. It backed Gehlot during Sachin Pilot’s revolt last year but withdrew support to the government in December when the Congress and BJP joined hands to thwart the BTP candidate in the Dungarpur zila parishad chairperson poll.
The two main political parties have always cornered the ST votes, and they will be keenly watching how much traction they get in the debate over the Hindu-ness of the Meenas. The BJP is also ratcheting up the issue of religious conversions, which will help it consolidate its Hindu vote-bank in non-tribal areas. On August 8, in a bid to defuse the situation (and the BJP’s threat of an agitation), the government allowed worship of Amba Mata at the shrine from 8 am to 4 pm. Political parties have rarely tried to play the tribal card in Rajasthan, but it seems even that no-go area is up for grabs now.
This story first appeared on indiatoday.in