Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), urged tribals on Monday to stand firm against those who seek to exploit their innocence. The RSS chief stated that tribal pride was India’s pride and that people should work together to understand and protect it for the sake of the country.
Bhagwat was speaking at a function held by RSS affiliate Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Chhattisgarh’s Jashpur district to commemorate ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas’ (tribal pride day).
Bhagwant, who was in Chhattisgarh for the second time ahead of the 2023 assembly elections, also unveiled a statue of late Dilip Singh Judeo, who led the ‘Ghar Wapsi’ campaign to convert tribals from Christianity in the Jashpur region for many years.
According to the top RSS leader, Judeo was brave and fearless, and despite his fame and power, ‘he remained humble. He always stood for the pride of tribals.’
According to a BJP leader, Bhagwat’s visit will help keep the focus on tribal conversion in the upcoming elections. ‘Religious conversion in Chhattisgarh was the core issue at Bhagwat’s last meeting in Raipur in September, and this visit to Jashpur creates a narrative that the Congress government is not making any attempt to contain religious conversion,’ the leader added.
The BJP lost all three seats reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates in Jashpur in the 2018 Assembly elections to the Congress.
In the 1980s, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) began efforts to gain a foothold in what is now north Chhattisgarh by campaigning against what it claimed were attempts to entice tribals to convert. The BJP won the three tribal seats of Jashpur, Tapkara, and Bageecha by 1993, indicating that the campaign was yielding results.
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