The irony of Assam politics is that even though the BJP in 2016 formed its first government under a tribal leader, Sarbananda Sonowal, the lived reality of the state’s tribal communities has remained unchanged, if not worsened. The “son of the soil” narrative was projected as a shield for indigenous rights, but eviction drives, neglect, and political tokenism exposed a hard truth — tribals were reduced to electoral symbols rather than empowered stakeholders.

Evictions and Blood on the Land

During Sonowal’s tenure, more than a thousand tribal families were evicted from Amchang reserve forest. The spectacle of bulldozers and police forces against the poorest of the poor contradicted the very promise of “jaati, maati, bheti.” In Morigaon’s Roha, a tribal protest demanding AIIMS ended with bullets — one life lost, many wounded, but no justice delivered. These events revealed the state’s double standards: where eviction of landless tribals became “development,” while encroachment by powerful lobbies remained untouched.

The Tirap Question

Now the controversy returns to the Tirap Tribal Belt and Block Areas, where tribals are resisting the government’s move to grant non-tribals the status of protected communities. For the tribes, this is nothing less than a direct assault on their survival. Fertile land, forests, and coal deposits have long been magnets for outsiders, and the fear is real: once non-tribals gain protection, demographic and economic dominance will shift irreversibly.

A Legacy of Betrayal

The tribal voice in Assam has always been silenced at crucial junctures. In 2013, two prominent figures of the Tirap struggle, Prashnana Turung and his wife, mysteriously vanished in the Patkai hills. Fingers were pointed towards then-minister Pradyut Bordoloi and sections of the tea-plantation lobby. It created ripples in Assam’s political circles, but soon fatigue and silence buried the case. Even BJP MLA Bhaskar Sharma’s personal appeal to then-CM Sonowal ended as a “filed and forgotten” case. For the tribals, the message was clear: their lives are expendable, their leaders disposable.

Why the Issue Returns

The current protests in Tirap are not just about administrative status. They represent accumulated anger at decades of betrayal — by Congress governments that romanticized tribal culture but allowed exploitation, and by the BJP that promised protection but delivered bulldozers. The mainstream media’s indifference only reinforces the sense of abandonment, forcing tribals to bring their voices directly into the political center stage.

The Larger Political Undercurrent

For the ruling BJP, the Tirap issue is dangerous because it cuts into its carefully curated narrative of being the “protector of indigenous identity.” It also exposes contradictions within the party: Sonowal’s tribal identity failed to shield tribal interests, and now Himanta Biswa Sarma’s aggressive development pitch risks alienating tribal belts already suspicious of outsider dominance. Opposition parties, weakened but watchful, may attempt to weaponize this discontent, especially as Assam moves closer to another electoral season.

The tribals of Assam stand at the crossroads once again — neglected by the state, ignored by the media, and courted only as vote banks. Their struggles — from Amchang to Tirap, from vanished leaders to eviction drives — remain open scars. The BJP’s current predicament lies in the fact that a “tiny issue” in neglected corners can flare into a storm, questioning not just policies but the very morality of power in Assam.