G20 Summit: Congress hits out at PM Modi for ‘sheer hypocrisy’, ’empty statements’ on environment

"While destroying protections for India’s forests and biodiversity, and diluting the rights of Adivasis and forest-dwelling communities, he (Modi) talks of environment, climate action and equity," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote on X.

By: Express Web Desk

New Delhi | Updated: September 10, 2023 01:22 PM IST

2 min read

narendra modi climate change environment protection jairam ramesh congress

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that even as PM Narendra Modi made statements about climate change action, his government was destroying protections for India's forests. (Express file photos)

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Congress MP Jairam Ramesh Sunday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statements at the G20 Summit and other global conferences over climate change, calling them ‘sheer hypocrisy’.

In a statement, Ramesh claimed that Modi’s comments on the environment, climate change action and equity are at odds with his government’s policies. “While destroying protections for India’s forests and biodiversity, and diluting the rights of Adivasis and forest-dwelling communities, he (Modi) talks of environment, climate action and equity,” Ramesh wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).

The statement said that the PM had used the G20 Summit, set to conclude today, to make “big, empty statements about the importance of environment”. It cited Modi’s remarks at the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Meet, and said that while Modi talks about climate action at global events, the BJP-led government at the Centre was “comprehensively dismantling India’s environmental protections and snatching away the rights of the most vulnerable communities dependent on forests”.

Further, the statement said the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023, was a “massive dilution” of the original law’s provisions, and that it “enabled the Modi government to continue the reckless destruction of biodiversity across India”.

Ramesh also criticised the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023. His statement also pointed out that Mizoram, an NDA-ruled state, had passed a resolution opposing the Act, and that the Nagaland Assembly was also expected to do the same soon. It said that the Act “is only paving the way for the Modi government to exploit forests and hand them over to a few select crony capitalist friends”.

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