Government to hold biggest-ever tribal carnival next week

NEW DELHI: In a major outreach exercise, the BJP government is rolling out the biggest-ever tribal carnival in India next week. Working on the directives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the tribal affairs ministry would host a fourday event in the capital drawing close to 65,000 tribal delegates and artistes from all over India.

The National Tribal Carnival would be organised from October 25 to 28 and would see the participation of the Prime Minister, state chief ministers, tribal MPs, former BJP MPs and MLAs from tribaldominated constituencies, sitting tribal MPs, BJP state presidents of ST cell.

Though a cultural carnival is an annual ministry fare, the event has been scaled up manifold after Modi’s suggestion that this be converted into a socio-political exercise.

The carnival will be inaugurated by Modi at Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium on October 25 and will see high-level discussions on tribal-related issues including implementation of Forest Rights Act and Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act.

One of the key issues of deliberations would be reservation in politics, recruitment and service matters.

Speaking to ET, tribal affairs minister Jual Oram said, “The Prime Minister had directed us to organise this event to give a feeling of inclusivity to tribals in remote corners of India. I have personally involved all political parties. I have spoken to all tribal MPs and former ministers and sought their participation. We expect over 65,000 delegates and participants from across India.”

The scale of the event can be gauged from the fact that states are running special trains for tribal delegates to Delhi. While Chhattisgarh has already booked a train, Jharkhand and Rajasthan are trying to work out details with Railway ministry. The ministry has already issued close to 70,000 railway concession passes. Ministry expects the most participation from Madhya Pradesh.

Most other BJP states — including Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat — would send high number of delegates.