Looking to make their way back into the list of Scheduled Tribes this election year, leaders of three communities from Kutch—Koli, Vaghari and Paradhi, traditionally considered Congress votebanks—along with new Congress district party president Shankar Sachade, have asked AICC chief Sonia Gandhi to raise the issue with the state Government. The leaders met Sonia during her recent visit to Gujarat and were assured of “immediate action”, said Sachade. The leaders also submitted a detailed memorandum to Sonia and urged her to direct the state Government to recommend their case to the Centre. “The Kolis, Vagharis and Paradhis are local tribes. On the basis of a survey, the Central Government had included them in the first list of Scheduled Castes and Tribes which was issued in 1951. However, the BJP-led NDA Government delisted them in 2003. The BJP Government in the state issued a notification in this regard after passing a resolution on September 5, 2003. The communities were not even given a hearing. What’s more, they found out about their non-ST status through newspapers,” said Sachade. According to Sachade, the three communities together constitute a large chunk of the population in the district. Never before have so many people been delisted at a go in the country, he said, adding that the move has been a blow to the development of the communities. “The only possible reason seems to be that they are traditional supporters of the Congress. With most villages inhabited by members of the three communities, almost all the reserved seats for STs went uncontested in the last Panchayat elections,” he said.
