President Murmu to grace Tribal Pride Day celebration in Shahdol on 15 November

BHOPAL / President Draupadi Murmu is likely to attend a state-level celebration to be organised in Shahdol of Madhya Pradesh on 15 November as a part of the nationwide Tribal Pride Day, to mark the birth anniversary of Adiwasi icon Birsa Munda.

MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday informed about the president’s visit to the state by posting a series of tweets in Hindi.

“Honourable President will arrive in Shahdol to attend the Janjatiya Gaurav Divas celebration. Her first arrival in Madhya Pradesh as a President is a pride for us”, the CM tweeted. “Today, I invited her to come to MP. It is our felicity that the honourable president has accepted the invitation”, Chouhan also tweeted.

He said in another tweet, “the whole MP will listen to the address from the President. Welcome Rashtrapati Mahodaya on the soil of MP.”

The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs will organise nationwide celebrations to mark the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda, who is revered as a God among tribal communities across the country, Tribal Pride Day. Munda was a well-known freedom fighter, social reformer and famous tribal leader. The Union government has asked its various Ministries and the governments of States and Union Territories to participate in the programmes organised by the State Tribal Research Institutes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15 November last year announced in Bhopal that the birth anniversary of Birsa Munda would be celebrated as the Tribal Pride Day to commemorate the contribution of tribal communities to the history and culture of the nation.

The state-level celebrations will be organised in the tribal-dominated Shahdol division and in all tribal blocks of the state.

Chouhan has engaged himself in the preparations to mark the celebration historic. On Sunday, he flew to Shahdol to ensure all the arrangements, before it, he had invited the chiefs of the tribal communities and discussed with public representatives, traditional Tadvi, Patel and other representatives who have arrived from different districts.

After losing the Assembly elections in 2018, BJP came to power in 2020 after toppling the Congress government in a dramatic political incident and it has started focusing on tribal voters. Since then, the BJP-ruled government has launched various schemes to woo tribal communities. The celebration is considered a part of its strategy, keeping an eye on the upcoming 2023 polls. BJP merely managed to16 seats out of 47 reserved for Schedule Caste in the state in the 2018 Assembly polls while Congress bagged 31 seats.

Many activities related to tribals will be done during the celebrations such as honouring successful students of JEE, NEET and CLAT; distributing letters of beneficiary schemes, putting up an exhibition; performances of folk dances, music and songs and etc.