Chhattisgarh tribal leader Arvind Netam bats for delisting STs who have converted their religion

Former Union Minister Arvind Netam. File. | Photo Credit: ANI

Veteran tribal leader and former Union Minister Arvind Netam has thrown his weight behind the demand from certain quarters that those who convert their religion be delisted from the Scheduled Tribes (STs). 

Speaking to journalists in Raipur on Saturday , the long-time former Congressman, who has now retired from active politics, said his stance on the issue had “changed” as it helped in “checking religious conversions”.  Mr. Netam had called a press conference in the State capital two days after attending  the concluding ceremony of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh’s (RSS) 25-day training camp in Nagpur, the ‘Karyakarta Vikas Varg - Dwitiya’, as its chief guest. 

“Their policy on delisting… initially, I was opposed to it but later I felt this was one of the ways to stop religious conversions so we accepted that we agree with you (the RSS). So there are many issues that I placed in front of them,” Mr. Netam said on the sidelines of the press conference. 

Delisting refers to the demand to remove indigenous people converted to Christianity and Islam from the list of STs. One of the earliest proponents of the idea in independent India was the late Kartik Oraon, a former Congress MP, who had made an unsuccessful attempt in 1968 to de-schedule Christian tribals by introducing a Bill in Parliament. In recent years, there have been voices in support of it in both the Sarguja region of Chhattisgarh, and the southern tribal heartland of Bastar, by various groups under the Sangh Parivar. 

The issue goes hand in hand with opposition to religious conversions, and is getting mainstreamed. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, in a video interview in May, had referred to Oraon’s attempts, and had said that delisting could prevent conversions. His fellow Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Chief Minister Champai Soren from Jharkhand had in April said that Adivasis who converted to other religions should be delisted. 

When The Hindu asked why he had changed his stance on the issue, and why he had been opposed to it earlier, Mr. Netam said that he had had concerns that the number of seats reserved for tribals (29 in the 90-member House) might come down. “I was worried about the reservations, that the seats might decrease due to delisting.  But after studying, I found that in Chhattisgarh, only one or two seats will be reduced,” he said. 

Beyond reservation 

The clamour in support of delisting has been mostly around reservations in jobs, education, and promotions that the Constitution of India guarantees for STs.  Legal experts and activists, however, fear that it could have far-reaching consequences beyond mere reservation benefits because delisting can extend to other areas, including land protection, atrocities and oppression. 

Furthermore, the impact of an eventual delisting — which is largely theoretical at this point — would be felt beyond Chhattisgarh. Answering a question on its possible consequences for Christian-majority communities in the northeast, Mr. Netam said that it would make little impact in those areas as an overwhelming majority of the population there was tribal, unlike other areas, including Chhattisgarh, which have a mixed population.

Published - June 07, 2025 08:41 pm IST