On the sacred soil of Baba Farid's Faridkot, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini stood before hundreds of Vimukt Jati families on Sunday, 2 August 2026, and delivered a pointed political promise: elect a BJP government in Punjab, and every district will get time-bound certificate camps for denotified tribe communities.

Addressing the 'Vimukt Jati Samaj Sammelan' in Faridkot, Punjab, Saini spoke in Hindi, saying the Vimukt Samaj deserves 'samman, saman adhikar aur saman avsar' — dignity, equal rights, and equal opportunity. He acknowledged the community's long history of struggle but insisted that future need not be defined by it.

A Colonial Wound Still Open

The Vimukt Jati — India's denotified tribes — carry a burden rooted in the colonial Criminal Tribes Acts, under which entire communities were branded as hereditary criminals. Though those laws were repealed after Independence, the stigma and the bureaucratic exclusion persisted. For decades, these families have fought for legal recognition, welfare certificates, and a seat inside mainstream government schemes.

A National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes was constituted in 2005 to examine their socio-economic conditions and recommend welfare measures — but implementation has remained patchy across states. The demand for district-level certificate camps, which Saini now promises, is one of the community's oldest and most practical asks: without a certificate, there is no access to reservation benefits, no scholarship, no government loan.

Modi's Name, Punjab's Votes

Saini invoked Prime Minister Narendra Modi by name, framing the Centre's education, skill development, self-employment, and empowerment programmes as the vehicle to bring the Vimukt Samaj into the development mainstream. The subtext was unmistakable: this is a BJP government's work, and Punjab needs one to get the same.

The choice of Faridkot — a district with deep Sufi heritage and a historically significant backward-community electorate — was not incidental. BJP's cross-border outreach from Haryana into Punjab reflects a deliberate strategy to consolidate OBC and denotified-tribe votes ahead of the next Punjab assembly election. Saini, as a Haryana CM with roots in backward-community politics, is a credible messenger for this pitch.

What the Promise Actually Requires

The certificate camp pledge is conditional — it kicks in only if BJP forms a government in Punjab. That is an electoral promise, not a policy announcement, and it underscores how welfare delivery for marginalised communities remains entangled with electoral outcomes. For Vimukt Jati families waiting years for documentation, the conditionality is the whole story.

Saini closed by thanking the assembled families for their 'sneh aur vishwas' — affection and trust. The question Punjab's denotified tribes will carry into the next election is whether that trust will be enough to change a government, and whether a changed government will be enough to change their paperwork.