On November 9 Gujjars, Bakerwals, and other Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities of Jammu and Kashmir announced to boycott the visit of union tribal affairs minister Arjun Munda to Udhampur scheduled on November 17 and 18.
Anwar Choudhary, convenor of All J&K Gujjar Bakerwal Co-ordination Committee (AJKGBCC), said “To register our protest against the move of the government to grant ST status to Pahari-speaking people, who belong to upper castes of society, a boycott call was announced today by All J&K Gujjar Bakerwal Co-ordination Committee (AJKGBCC), the main body of ST communities of J&K.”
He said protests will be held in all the tribal localities in Udhampur during the two-day visit of the tribal minister to oppose the move of granting ST status to mainstream society under the canopy of Pahari-speaking people.
The tribal leaders have appealed to the ST communities of J&K to wear black badges, hold black flags on their houses and share their photos and reels on social media handles.
“They (Pahari people) are socially upper classes, economically well off people with the highest literacy rate above the percentage of UT of J&K,” Chowdhary said.
He said that if these communities comprising more than 60 castes come under the ambit of ST, they will elbow out the genuine tribes from the competition as being weaker sections facing poverty, illiteracy, and social discrimination.
Recently, the registrar general of India and the national commission for Schedule Tribes accepted the recommendations of Justice GD Sharma’s Commission report to notify Paharis as STs.
