Apart from the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) now has the Census 2021 on its agenda. At a co-ordination meet in Bhopal, the RSS’ Public Relations Head Arun Kumar said that the Sangh has received information from sources that there are some organizations working with the tribal population in India who are allegedly urging them to tick the ‘other caste / religion’ box instead of registering themselves as Hindu, Dainik Bhaskar reported.
It was reported that Arun Kumar expressed concern over the matter and said that in the population of Hindus fell from 84% in 1991 to 69% in 2011. The reason for this, he cited was that the tribals chose to not register themselves as Hindus for the same.
RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat who was also present at the meeting said that all volunteers of the Sangh must reach out to the tribals in villages and make them aware of the situation and the falsehoods being spread about the National Population Register (NPR). In the meeting, he reportedly asked the Sangh volunteers to educate tribals and Dalits, who were being misled, and remove the impression that the CAA and NRC were against the Constitution.
Mohan Bhagwat who had embarked on a tour of Bhopal on February 3 said that the people who thought themselves to be intellectuals should be brought to the organization and be ‘disciplined’. The meeting in Bhopal, especially Bhagwat’s tour, is being seen as a strategy to counter the hostility that non-BJP ruled states have towards the CAA and NRC, reported News 18.
The Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh governments have opposed the CAA and NRC. In Madhya Pradesh 700 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Jabalpur resigned en masse from the party to register their displeasure against the CAA-NPR-NRC, reported the National Herald. Chhattisgarh’s state cabinet became the fifth state in the country to pass a resolution against the CAA, asking the Centre to repeal the draconian Act.
Chhattisgarh has a major population of people belonging to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes and has witnessed massive protests against the CAA and NRC because if implemented, a big chunk of the state’s population that lives below the poverty line who are illiterate and landless, will not only face difficulties in completing formalities, but will be potentially set to be left out of the citizens’ list.
Related:
Will CAA ensure land ‘invasions’ into Adivasi dominated Vth Schedule areas?
Never-the-less, she persisted: The true meaning of Mumbai Bagh
Communal Riots 2019: Communal Discourse Raging On in India