RANCHI: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Sunday termed the denial of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to Assam tea tribes as "national injustice". In a post on X, Soren said it was "an injustice that history will never forgive".
“A truth lies buried on the soil of Assam—a truth that cannot be spoken of enough, nor shared widely enough. The tribal community, which has resided in Assam’s tea gardens for generations, has yet to receive the constitutional status of Scheduled Tribes (ST) to this day. This is no ordinary oversight; it is an injustice of national magnitude—an injustice that history will never forgive,” Soren wrote on X.
"Just imagine: those whom the British forcibly uprooted from their homes and bound to this very soil—those who built Assam’s economy with their own blood and sweat—have, to this day, been denied recognition of their very existence," he added.
Soren further wrote, "Even decades after independence, governments changed and leadership shifted, yet the suffering of this community remained unchanged. The most distressing aspect is that even those who made grand promises failed to prioritise this issue."
"In fact, even the parties currently in power did not deem it worthy of inclusion in their election manifestos," he wrote.
"Shouldn’t the question be raised as to why an entire community has been systematically deprived of its constitutional rights?," he asked.
"As long as justice remains incomplete, democracy too remains incomplete," he said.
"I wish to state this unequivocally: this issue transcends the realm of politics. It is a matter of justice, dignity and identity. The tribal community of Assam can no longer be made to wait,” said the Jharkhand Chief Minister.
"They must get their rights—their full rights, their constitutional rights—and they must get them with dignity; the time has come for the nation to acknowledge this injustice and rectify it," he added.
Hemant Soren's intervention has brought the demand for ST status for Assam’s tea garden communities into sharp political focus.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's (JMM) growing electoral push in Assam has added new layers of complexity to opposition dynamics. Notably, Hemant Soren has made these remarks while staying in Assam for several days, where he has been actively campaigning for the upcoming Assembly elections.
The JMM has fielded 18 candidates, primarily in Upper Assam constituencies that have a sizable population of tea garden tribal workers.