Rahul Gandhi keeps firing salvos at BJP outside Parliament: ‘Wherever it goes, it tries to stifle Hindustan’s voice’

Rahul said the Army could “douse the situation” in Manipur.

“BJP’s thinking set fire to Manipur. People and children are being killed. Women are being raped…The fire has been on for the last few months. If the PM wants, he can douse that fire in two to three days by directing the Indian Army,” he said.

Rahul then took aim at the PM for not visiting Manipur and said wherever the PM goes, he “makes people fight amongst each other”. He told the audience, “It has been three months and it feels as if Manipur is not a part of India. The PM has not spoken a word to date. I went there and spoke to women and children. Several Opposition parliamentarians went, but the PM didn’t go.”

The Wayanad MP spoke of the work done by the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan. Rahul called the state’s Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme the “country’s best insurance scheme” and cited the Kalibai Scooty Yojana, the Mukhyamantri Anuprati Coaching Yojana, the SC-ST Development Fund, the Old Pension Scheme, and the Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill.

“We run a government for the poor (and) the Adivasis. We work to bring people together, while they are spreading hatred across the country. I walked from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and passed through Rajasthan for the Bharat Jodo Yatra. We gave a slogan: ‘Nafrat ke bazaar mein hum mohabbat ki dukaan kholte hain (Let’s open a shop of love in the market of hate)’. That is our job,” he said.

The Congress leader spoke of his grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s “deep connection with tribals”. He recalled an incident from 45 years ago when Indira gave him a book titled Tendu: Ek adivasi bachha (Tendu: a tribal child).

“One day I asked her what the word Adivasi meant. She told me that they are the first residents of Hindustan. This land of ours, which we call Bharat today, used to be the land of Adivasis. She said that today’s modern society should understand life from Adivasis on how to behave with water, jungle and land.”

Referring to the Mangarh massacre of November 17, 1913, when the British killed about 1,500 tribals, Rahul said, “The original maaliks (owners) of this Hindustan were martyred here by the bullets of the English.”

He added, “The BJP has come out with a new word, Vanvasi, which means one who resides in a jungle … They say neither you are Adivasi nor were you the first residents of Hindustan … This is an insult to you, to Bharat Mata, and the entire country.”

The Congress leader claimed the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) do not want tribals to “venture out” beyond jungles. “They want to impose the stamp of a Vanvasi on you, which means you are a forest dweller and less than others. We are not ready to accept this. You are the maalik of this land … They call you Vanvasi, yet they snatch your jungle from you and hand it over to Adani ji.”

Comparing the BJP’s tribal policies with the Congress, Rahul said, “We want you to succeed in whatever you do.”

“We gave you the rights to jungle, land and water. We gave the PESA (Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, 1996), the Adivasi Bill…What did the BJP and RSS do? The tools we gave you, they cancelled one after the other. But you were Adivasis, are Adivasis, and will remain Adivasis. No one can change history. The reality is that this land first belonged to Adivasis and they should get rights to dream any dream in this country,” he said.

Gehlot, state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra, and party leader Sachin Pilot also addressed the rally.