Jharkhand polls: BJP demeaning tribals by calling them ‘Vanvasis’, says Rahul Gandhi

RANCHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday promised the electorate of pollbound Jharkhand to conduct a caste census in the coming years and break the 50% reservation ceiling for Dalits, OBCs and tribal communities.

The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, who was here to speak on a panel discussion titled ‘Samvidhan Samman Sammelan’, hit out at BJP for “demeaning” the tribal communities across the country by calling them vanvasis (forest dwellers).

Gandhi also took a dig at BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Terming that Modi’s concerns for the Adivasis, Dalits and OBCs were hollow, Gandhi criticized the BJP govt for not inviting President Droupadi Murmu to the inauguration of the new Parliament house and Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

“Today, the fight is between the Constitution and the Manu Smriti. BJP calls Adivasis as Vanvasis. While Adivasis mean the first owners of our land, Vanvasis mean forest dwellers. They want to destroy the culture, philosophy, medicine and science of the tribal communities which has existed for thousands of years,” Gandhi told a gathering of civil society group functionaries at the Shaurya Auditorium at Doranda here.

Notably, the JMM-led alliance in the state, of which the Congress is a part along with RJD, has pitched the upcoming assembly election as a battle to save the ‘Jharkhandi Asmita against BJP’s divisive forces’.

“I did my schooling in the country. None of the textbooks here have a chapter dedicated to the history of the Adivasis. The books mention untouchability but none of them describes the pain the Dalits endured for centuries,” Gandhi said. He also rued that tribal and Dalit officials have a minuscule representation in the top bureaucracy of the country while the exact numbers of OBCs cannot be determined because a caste census is non-existent. Sooner or later, we will conduct a caste census and break the reservation cap, which is fixed at 50%,” he assured.

Gandhi also met Hemant at a city hotel. Though both Congress and JMM termed the meeting as a courtesy call, their meeting is likely to have an impact on the seat-sharing between the two biggest INDIA bloc parties in the state. With the election around the corner, Gandhi’s visit will boost the morale of the party workers, its state president Keshav Mahto Kamlesh said.

Courtesy : TOI

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