Udaipur : Polit bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Brinda Karat, on Wednesday said tribals in South Rajasthan are totally bereft of their land and forest rights. ” They have not been granted pattas, they cannot use sand from the land or timber from the forest and hence big traders from Gujarat are selling them these products at exorbitant prices.
This is the reason that some 1400 to 1600 tribal homes are standing as incomplete structures” she said. Brinda,the national vice president of Adiwasi Janadhikar Eka Manch, was on a two day visit in Udaipur. She said the state government and administration unreluctantly grant rights of land, hills to bigshots and industrialists but when the poor tribal people try to build homes, they are harassed with documentation, penalized on the pretext of rules and regulations, not even granted loans by banks.
Laying a scathing attack on the Modi government, Brinda said ” Modi’s is a Dhokha jeevi govt. For example, their budget is a complete cheating on the name of tribal education. On one hand they announce 750 new EkLavya residential schools for tribal areas but on the other hand they allocated only a 100 crore budget compared to the last year. In 2020 the fund allocated for the Eklavya schools was 1313 cr whereas this year it is 1418 cr only while it should have been atleast 25thousand crore if they really wish to build 750 new schools.
“she said. Karat also condemned the Gehlot government for registering cases against tribal youths in connection to the Kankri Dungri movement. She said what Modi is doing at the center, if the congress tries to repeat it at the regional level, the tribal community will not suffer silently. On a question related to BTP’s contribution towards tribal issues, Brinda said the party has not so far taken up any concrete issue for the tribal cause.”
Just to collect the tribal youth on the pretext of Adiwasi Raj is not enough. If anyone wishes to do politics on the name of the tribal, they should make sure to protect the tribal rights instead of protecting vested interests” Karat said. Commenting on the farmers’ protest, she said ” Modiji and his supporters have called all bad names for the poor farmers who have been protesting for their rights. From Khalistanis to Chinese agents and Naxals, they have given all names.
It is not in the DNA of the BJP or the RSS to endure dissent or act democratically. If they really wish to make amends, Modiji should keep aside his arrogance and take back the farm laws. A new farm law should be made taking the consent of the farmers” she said. Speaking on the West Bengal violence Karat said, it was originally the TMC-BJP alliance against Marxist forces in the state but now when the elections are near, BJP is playing the victim card to capture the TMC votes. But the fact is both are two sides of the same coin and only the communist party is the single party working for the common good.