Utnoor says delist; Delhi decides
Tudumdebba’s protest in Utnoor revives a long-running Adivasi demand: remove Lambadas/Banjaras from Telangana’s ST list. The law puts the decision in Parliament’s lap — and the BJP-led Centre has kept that lap empty.
A demand raised in Utnoor still awaits the parliamentary process required to alter the Scheduled Tribes list.
Tudumdebba rallied at the ITDA office in Utnoor, Adilabad, demanding the removal of Lambadas (Banjaras/Sugalis) from the Scheduled Tribes list and asking the Telangana government to pass a resolution to that effect before sending it to Delhi, according to a report. Police presence was noted; the protest was described as peaceful in that account. ITDA Project Officer Manda Makarandu met the leaders and said the demand would be considered “as per norms,” per the same report.
What the record actually fixes is this: Lambadas/Banjara/Sugalis are on Telangana’s ST list today. And changing that list is not a collector’s order or a state G.O.; Article 342(2) says only Parliament can include or exclude communities by law. A state resolution is politics, not the key to the lock — the key sits with the BJP-led Centre and its numbers in Parliament.
The demand itself is not new; Utnoor has seen it before. What’s missing is any sign that Delhi intends to test it in the only place that counts: a Bill to amend the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950. The Congress, for its part, is fluent in sympathy when out of power and silent when the vote is in the House. If Telangana sends a resolution, the BJP-led Centre will still have to stop dodging and table the Bill instead of another slogan about tribal welfare.