BJP's Tuhin Sinha dares CM Hemant Soren for open debate on his 'Adivasis never Hindu' claim

New Delhi, March 04: Well known author and BJP leader, Tuhin A Sinha, has on Thursday slammed Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren for his recent comments at the Harvard India Conference where Soren claimed that “Adivasis were never Hindus, will never be”

 

Sinha in an article to one of the online portals decimated Soren’s claim through a series of supporting arguments based upon existing practices of Hindus and tribals as well as historical evidence of shared practices between the two communities. He has therein questioned Soren’s motive, “ With such glaring similarities between the Hindu and tribal societies, one is not sure what makes Soren base his claims on feeble, fallible arguments, unless he has been forced to borrow the naiveté of his alliance partner- Rahul Gandhi.”

 

 

The BJP leader has further accused Hemant Soren of creating fresh divisions in Indian society with his irresponsible comments, that too on an international platform. He has dared Soren for an open debate on the subject. “I challenge Hemantji for an open debate on the issue. Adivasis and Hindus share centuries old bond, which has been vitiated by his irresponsible comments. This is not the vision of Abua Disham Abua Raj (our land, our rule) that Birsa Munda had dreamt of, for tribals.”

 

 

As a prominent voice of the party in national media, Tuhin Sinha’s unsparing rebuttal of Soren’s controversial claims is significant. While Soren’s comments have left the party uneasy, considering the 26% Adivasi voters’ in the state, the party had so far refrained from confronting the CM actively. The author who has been busy working on his book on Birsa Munda, which releases later this year, claims to have researched extensively on the life and beliefs of the great tribal revolutionary, whom Soren ironically, also claims to idolize.

 

 

 

Sinha writes, “ It is worth noting here, that Birsa Munda’s mentor in the early 1890s after he shunned Christinaity and walked out the Chaibasa Missionary school, was a Vaishnavite preacher, Anand Panrai. It was the time spent with this preacher, who employed learnings from Bhagwad Gita and generously quoted anecdotes from the Ramayan and Mahabharat, that led to a spiritual transformation in Birsa, evident and documented from 1894 onwards…... At no point in Birsa Munda’s life is there any definitive antipathy towards Hinduism.”

 

 

Offering a middle ground solution, he said, “Nobody denies that the Adivasis follow certain distinct cultural practices. These practices are largely attributable to their habitat and do not specifically transcend into a separate religious identity. Therefore the Sarna Code, ideally needs to be seen as a cultural code, both within Hindus (for all tribal population) as well as within Christians (for tribals who have already converted).

.

.