Devika Chhibber
With election fever gripping Chhattisgarh, promises are in the air. Parties are trying to woo voters through several tactics. All party slogans are simple to guess `Desh hamara naara hai janta hamari data hai`-- `Serving country is our motto and people of the land are deities` etc.
Chhattisgarh polls for 90 Assembly seats are taking place in two phases on Nov 14th and 20th. In the first phase, 39 seats from 10 districts voted on November 14. The second phase will witness polls for 51 seats from eight districts on November 20.
Let us take a glimpse on the issues that are expected to play a significant role in the elections:
Development
Known for its exceptional scenic beauty and a rich cultural heritage, Chhattisgarh has always been synonymous with tribes and tribal culture. Over one third of the state population comprises of various tribes, most of them inhabiting the thickly forested areas of the Bastar-Dantewada region. Bastar is also the largest tribal district of Chhattisgarh as its population forms about 26.76% of the total tribal population of the state.
Chhattisgarh is a region where several tribes have flourished but today they face several dangers. All tribes are very backward and thus there is a need to bring them on par with the outside world. Their problems include lack of education and employment, leading to other key problems like health and poverty. Thus, this issue tops the agenda for all political parties- tribal welfare.
The condition of the state has improved under Raman Singh government. India Today ranked him in 2005 as the Number One CM in India. Under his leadership, Chhattisgarh stood first in the country in the implementation of the 20-point program on the development of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes (2006-2007) as per the assessment of the Statistics and Programme Implementation Ministry, Govt of India.
The United Nations has given its highest award to Chhattisgarh in recognition of its human development model. Chhattisgarh has also continued to be the leading Indian state in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana for the last three years.
Hence, the prime objective before the next government would be to implement and develop a replicable model that ensures household food security and improves livelihood opportunities and overall quality of life of the tribal population.
Maoists and Salwa Judoom
Owing to its backwardness, Chhattisgarh easily became one of the key bases for the Maoist. There are 12 seats in the Maoist terror-hit southern and northern region.
The Chhattisgarh police suspected that the Maoists rebels would attempt to carry out heinous attacks in Bijapur and Dantewada districts. The cops, posted at police outposts in dense forest areas would be their possible targets.
As elections approach, fear of Maoist attacks is also growing in the mineral-rich state. The state administration has already deployed thousands of police officers in sensitive areas.
Another issue, allied to the Maoist issue, is Salwa Judum. Salwa Judum was a state sponsored anti-naxalite campaign that was started in Bijapur and Dantewada districts in 2005.
Owing to the state government patronage, Salwa Judum members, who were armed with lethal weapons, conducted violent raids in hundreds of tribal villages and tortured tribals suspected to be Naxal sympathisers.
Tens of thousands of people were relocated to government-run Salwa Judum camps during this operation. There were also reports of inhuman torture, rape and murder on part of the Salwa Judum members against those who refused to take part in Salwa Judum campaign or attempted to leave the camps.
The Chief Justice of India also commented, “When somebody (Salwa Judum) is given arms, he claims to be a pseudo police. Once he is given arms, he will commit an offence though he has no right to do any such act.”
The Chhattisgarh government, in defence of Salwa Judum, said, “It is not state-sponsored, but a people’s initiative to combat the menace of Naxalites. The state is committed to resolving the problem of Naxalism, and any peaceful movement which resists violent methods definitely gets support of states.”
Was Salwa Judum a successful operation? If yes, then to what extent? If the campaign has been so effective, then why did 55 police personnel die at the hands of more than 300 heavily armed rebels in Rani Bodli police outpost on March 2007?
But before such questions could be answered, owing to the all-round criticism of the actions of the extrajudicial force, the state government abandoned the campaign last year.
The reality dawned on everybody; though it was primarily meant to be a vigilante group it ended up dividing the tribal society and rendering thousands of poor men & women homeless.
Conversions
In Chhattisgarh conversion is another issue that the BJP hopes will help it in gaining votes in the name of Hinduism. Dilip Singh Judeo built an ashram to prevent conversions, which was his answer to the Christian missionaries’ activities.
The Ashram runs a chain of schools and hospitals. It was conceived by the Sangh Parivar to counter the proselytization by Christian missionaries. It has been successful in encouraging the tribals to identify themselves as part of the majority community, leading to the birth of what can be called the `born again-Hindu` class which has been the vanguard of the anti-conversion movement.
Outsider-native issue
Prem Prakash Pandey, Speaker of the outgoing Chhattisgarh Assembly raised a lot of heat during his poll campaign when he declared that Bhilai would not be allowed to become another Mumbai.
His rhetoric is being seen as mere politicking as the issue has never been central to the issues in the industrial belt of the state.
The Jogi factor
Ex-chief minister Ajit Jogi has been in the centre of the state politics since the state’s formation in year 2000. However, he later got entangled in a number of controversies.
Jogi received a major setback when the National Commission for SC and STs ruled that he does not belong to any scheduled tribe and has been "fraudulently" claiming that he belonged to Kanwar community.
Besides that, Ajit Jogi`s son`s involvement in Jaggi murder case will certainly create an unfavourable atmosphere for the Congress, even as it tries to raise development as the main issue.
BSP angle
Apart from the BJP and Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is reworking its strategy to customise project itself as per Chhattisgarh politics. Although, the BSP initially made headway in Chhattisgarh, then a part of Madhya Pradesh, it lost ground after the death of Kanshi Ram.
The state was not in Mayawati’s priority list until recently. Now the BSP intends to create space for itself between the two big parties and grab vote share from both. As part of its strategy, it has given the maximum number of tickets to Tribals who form 32% of the states population. The others being SC -12%, OBC`s -48-50 %, Upper castes -6-8%. Thus, if BSP is even able to gain 5% of ST vote then certainly it will spell trouble for the biggies in the state.
