Tribal activists, pressing for recognition of Sarna as a separate religion, on Saturday threatened to immolate themselves if Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not make any announcement about it during his proposed November 15 visit to Jharkhand.
Tribal activists will also observe a fast between 10 am and 1 pm in Jharkhand and other states on that day to support the demand.
Modi will visit Ulihatu, the birthplace of tribal icon Birsa Munda, in the state’s Khunti district on his birth anniversary on November 15, which is also Jharkhand Foundation Day.
The threat was made by two tribal activists of ‘Adivasi Sengel Abhiyan’ (ASA), President Salkhan Murmu said.
Murmu, a former lawmaker, said the decision to sacrifice was taken independently by two ASA members.
“We expect the Prime Minister to make an announcement on our long-standing demand for recognition of a separate ‘Sarna’ religion… If he does not clarify the Centre’s stand on our demand, the two activists have decided to self-destruct at 4 p.m. hours in Ulihatu and Bokaro, he said.
ASA held a meeting in Ranchi on November 8 and demanded the Center’s recognition of the Sarna tribal religion.
Incidentally, the Center has declared November 15 as ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas’ since 2021.
Murmu said that majority of the states in the country such as Punjab, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal were formed on linguistic basis to preserve their cultures, identities and languages but Santhali, despite being recognized in 2003 under the 8th Schedule of the Constitution, was not appointed. the official language of Jharkhand to date, although it was carved out of Bihar after a long tribal movement for statehood.
ASA leaders from Assam, Bengal and Jharkhand decided at a meeting on Friday to hold a rail and road blockade on December 30 in support of the Sarna religion.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said earlier this week that Modi is welcome in Jharkhand but the decision to recognize the ‘Sarna’ religion is still under consideration by the Centre.
“We have already sent all the papers (regarding the demands for a separate Sarna religious code for tribes) to him… Now he has to decide on it,” Soren said on Thursday.
The recognition of Sarna religion is necessary to identify tribes as different from the followers of other religions and ensure protection of their constitutional rights, he said.
Soren had in a letter to the Prime Minister in September sought recognition of the ‘Sarna’ code for tribals, claiming that their population in the region has fallen from 38 per cent to 26 per cent in the last eight decades.
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