Despite the searing heat conditions in drought-prone Nandurbar district, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Tuesday received by a large gathering of the tribal community of the region, who turned up at the CB Ground in Indira-Sanjay Nagar area to see and hear him.
Rahul, unlike the last time during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, did not seek to create any controversy or give a chance to the BJP to deflate his yatra, as he steered clear of “Savarkar” in his speech. He instead focused on attacking the Modi government over what he termed its attempts to deprive the tribals of their “ownership rights” on ”jal-jameen-jungle”.
Leading the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra into Maharashtra on its 59th day, Rahul reached Nandurbar city on Tuesday afternoon from Surat, after a day-long break during which he had gone back to Delhi.
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Arriving at the rally venue, Rahul acknowledged the cheers from the crowd and, moments later, sprinted to the adjoining ground and joined the tribals as they put up a traditional dance performance — an encore of what his father and grandmother had done when they had launched their election campaigns from this district.
The Congress leader also got the opportunity to flag off the month-long Holi celebrations of the tribal community here. As he flagged off the celebrations by breaking a stem, Congress leaders described it as an auspicious beginning “which will finally end the miserable BJP rule in the country”.
“Today, the Congress is flying high in Nandurbar. Inside and outside this ground, there is a sea of humanity waiting to see and hear their leader..,” said senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat while addressing the crowd. MPCC chief Nana Patole said the Modi government was trying to divide people but Rahul was trying to unite people through his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Local MLA K C Padwi also spoke. Other Congress leaders like Ramesh Chenithala and Jairam Ramesh were also present.
As Rahul took centrestage, he tore into what he described BJP’s attempts to take away the ownership rights of the tribals. “Jal-Jameen-Jungle, the wealth of the country belongs to you people. You are the original owners of this wealth,” Rahul said.
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“And how is the BJP taking away your wealth,” he asked. The BJP, he said, is handing over their wealth to a few of its favoured capitalists. “The Adanis-Ambanis are among the 22 multi-millionaires who are taking over your wealth… You are Adivasis, the original malik, but BJP wants to make you Vanvasis who live in the forest. The BJP wants to destroy the jungles and hand them over to the capitalists,” he said.
Revealing how the party plans to restore the “original malik” status of the tribal community, the Congress leader said once the party comes to power it will withdraw all the amendments made to the Forest Rights Act and Land Acquisition Act by the Modi government. “You will once again become the original owners of your own wealth… We will take revolutionary steps,” Rahul told the tribal community as he unfolded “six guarantees” to counter “Modi Ki Guarantee”.
One of the major Congress guarantees, he said, was to revive the Scheduled Caste Plan and Tribal Sub Plan which were scrapped by the Modi government. “The Gujarat government is claiming to be on the development path. And it is doing so by taking away the land of tribal communities, Dalit communities and the backward communities. At least 25 per cent of the land the BJP government in Gujarat has acquired for development purposes belongs to these communities. We will ensure justice to them when we return to power.”
Emphasising on the need for a caste census of all communities and an economic and financial survey, Rahul said, “If any particular district in the country is found to have a tribal population which is more than 50 per cent, our government will bring it under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. We will also initiate a caste census and at the same time carry out an economic and financial survey in the country which will help us understand the representation of each caste in our population. It will be an X-ray and MRI…,” he said.
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Rahul said the tribal community forms 8 per cent of the population. “But the tribal community does not have any semblance of representation in big companies, private hospitals or at top management level. Of the every Rs 100 allocated for expenditure in the Union budget, a tribal officer has the right to decide utilisation of only 10 paise. Of the 90 IAS officers who decide the country’s budget, only one is tribal.”
Rahul said a few select capitalists are being favoured by the Modi government. “The Modi government has written off Rs 16 lakh crore loans of these handful of capitalists. But has he written off even one paisa of the tribal community, of the farmers and the labourers? The amount of Rs 16 lakh crore that has been written off is equivalent to MNREGA outlay for 24 years,” he said.
The last time when his Bharat Jodo Yatra had entered Nanded, Rahul had taken a jibe at Savarkar. The BJP had next launched protests and demonstrations across Maharashtra. The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena had also objected to Rahul’s comments on the Hinduvta ideologue. Later at his Buldhana rally, Rahul avoided mentioning Savarkar. This time too, he preferred to keep Savarkar away from his speech.
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