Nationalists make major shift after tribal elected with the BJP to head Odisha govt
An ethnic Santal, Mohan Charan Majhi becomes Odisha’s new chief minister. He comes from the ranks of the RSS, the BJP’s paramilitary group that promotes Hindu supremacy. In the past, he supported a fanatic jailed for killing Christians and Muslims. According to experts, the BJP is trying to prove that even those from disadvantaged castes can come to power.
Bhubaneswar (AsiaNews) – For the first time, Odisha has a chief minister from the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ultranationalist Hindu party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
State elections were held in parallel with the elections for the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian Parliament. The BJP secured 20 of Odisha’s 21 Lok Sabha seats (only one was won by the Indian National Congress).
At the state level, Mohan Charan Majhi and the BJP defeated Naveen Patnaik, in power for 24 years, and his party, the Biju Janata Dal (BJP), a regional party, winning 78 in the 147-seat Odisha Legislative Assembly (the BJD won 51 and the Indian National Congress, India’s main opposition party, 14).
Two days after he was sworn in as the new chief minister, the new chief minister found himself already embroiled in a controversy, surrounding his participation in the campaign to free Dara Singh, a fanatic member of an extremist Hindu militant organisation, the Bajrang Dal.
Singh was sentenced to life in prison for the murder in 1999 of Australian missionary Graham Staines, burnt alive along with his two sons in one of the many examples of persecution against Christians in this Indian state.
The attack on Rev Staines, who ran a home for lepers, was but the latest in Singh’s crime spree against minorities. He was also found guilty of the murder of a Muslim trader whose arms he cut off before setting him on fire, and the murder of a Catholic priest, Fr Arul Das, killed by an arrow while fleeing after his church had been set on fire.
In Graham Staines’s case, Dara Singh led a mob to the car where the missionary was sleeping, and, as in other cases, set it on fire.
When administrators at Keonjhar Prison prevented Singh from seeing his relatives and lawyers in 2022, Mohan Charan Majhi, then BJP chief whip in the state legislature, along with other party members, protested against the decision, saying that the party might discuss ways to support the jailed man.
The protest campaign was organised and led by Suresh Chavhanke, director of Sudarshan TV who has never concealed his Islamophobia.
Mahji, 52, is an ethnic Santal, a group that accounts for about 23 per cent of Odisha's total population. He is also the third tribal to hold the post, but the first from the ranks of the BJP; the other two tribals belonged to the INC.
Like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mahji joined in his youth the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a fascist-inspired paramilitary organisation that supports Hindu supremacy and is linked to the BJP.
He worked as a teacher in a RSS-run school, and later made a jump into active politics, mainly as a representative of tribal communities.
First elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2000, in the Keonjhar constituency, which is reserved by law for members of tribal groups, he drew attention to environmental violations and corrupt practices in mining.
Although the BJP lost votes in the Union election, and now needs the support of its coalition partners for the first time to have a majority in the Lok Sabha in New Delhi, analysts note that the party was successful in attracting tribal voters, and now will try to rebuild its base among indigenous groups, a major shift for the party.
Historically, Indigenous Indians have backed the Indian National Congress and the BJD in Odisha. Now, things appear to be changing.
The election of Droupadi Murmu, who hails from Rairangpur, another district in Odisha, as president of India in 2022 certainly played a role, experts note.
Analyst Robi Das explained to Frontline that the BJP broke with the feudal mentality that characterised Odisha.
“For the first time, the lower caste is dominating the government. I always felt the BJP was a party of the upper caste, but this cabinet seems to be changing that perception,” he said.
Now, “If you look at the composition of the cabinet, you will see there are three tribal ministers, including the Chief Minister; there is a Dalit minister; and there are representatives from the farming caste, and warrior caste.
“Among the upper castes there is only one Brahmin and one Kayasta. The upper castes, who have always ruled the State, are nowhere in the picture.”
For the BJP, this could be an important starting point.
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