Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre of attempting to restrict the tribal communities to the jungles and deny their status as original owners of the land by calling them “Vanvasi” instead of “Adivasi”.
Calling tribals the “original owners” of the country, Rahul, who is on a two-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency Wayanad after being reinstated as an MP beginning Saturday, said that Adivasis should be given rights over the “land and forests”.
After inaugurating the HT Connection at Dr Ambedkar District Memorial Cancer Centre at Nalloornad in Mananthavady area, Gandhi alleged that there was a “perverted logic” behind calling tribals as vanvasis.
“It is to deny that you (tribals) are the original owners of the land and also restrict you to the jungle. The idea is that you belong in the jungle and should not leave the jungle,” he said.
The Congress leader said that this ideology was not acceptable to his party as the word vanvasi was a “distortion” of the history and traditions of the tribal communities and an “attack” on their relationship with the country. “For us (Congress) you are Adivasi, the original owners of the land,” he said.
“There is the word ‘Adivasi’, which means the original owners of the land. ‘Adivasi’ means a particular wisdom, a particular understanding of the earth we live on, a particular relationship with the planet we live on… The word ‘Adivasi’ also respects and accepts the fact that our tribal brothers and sisters were the original owners of this country. And that also implies that the original owners of this country should be given rights over the land and forests, and should be allowed an imagination to do whatever they want,” Rahul said.
He added, “As the original owners of the land, you should be able to have your children study engineering, become doctors, become lawyers, start businesses, know computers. But you should also get the rights in the forest, you should get the right to land, you should get the right to forest produce.”
Regarding the cancer centre, the Congress leader said he hoped that the new electricity connection would resolve the problems faced by doctors and patients due to the frequent power cuts in the area. He said he was happy to provide Rs 50 lakh from the MPLADS fund for the same. He added that the hospital will get an additional Rs 5 crore as a result of the good work done by the officials of the district.
At the event, he also mooted the idea of having mobile breast cancer screening units which can go to homes and screen women for the disease.
Later in the evening today, he would be travelling to Kozhikode district to lay the foundation stone of the Community Disability Management Center (CDMC) at St. Joseph High School Auditorium in Kodenchery.
He is scheduled to depart for Delhi from Calicut International airport at around 10.30 PM, reports PTI.