In a Bid to Woo Dalits, Adivasis, Rahul Gandhi Invokes ‘BJP-Adani' Nexus

The Wire

4 days ago

New Delhi: Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi, who is visiting Odisha as part of the Congress's attempts to revive its organisation in the state, hit out at the state BJP government for cowering under pressure from industrialists.
Addressing a 'Samvidhan Bachao Samavesh' or 'Save the Constitution Rally' in Bhubaneswar on Friday (July 11), Gandhi said that the Mohan Majhi-led government was being entirely controlled by 'five or six billionaires like Adani' who wanted to steal ' jal, jangal, zameen ' (water, forests and land) from the Adivasis of Odisha. Adivasis form around 22% of the state's population.
'Nowhere in the constitution has it been written that the country belongs to Adani, Ambani and billionaires. This country belongs to every citizen. The land in the country belongs to the poor and farmers, and not to a single billionaire. But wherever we see, be it Odisha or Chhattisgarh, only one name is being seen – Adani,' Gandhi said, in a speech that closely resembled the political messaging in his recent speeches in neighbouring Chhattisgarh.
Repeating his slogan that the constitution was 'under attack' during the BJP regime both at the Union and state levels, Gandhi held up the now-familiar copy of the constitution with a red cover.
He went on to allege that the recent stampede during the Jagannath Rath Yatra in Puri, in which over 50 devotees were grievously injured and three were killed, happened because of the state government's VIP treatment towards the visiting Adani family.
Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge during a political affairs committee meeting in Bhubaneswar. Photo by arrangement.
'When the Jagannath Yatra is taken out in Odisha, when rath s [chariots] are pulled, lakhs of people witness it and follow it. Then, a drama takes place and the raths were stopped for Adani and his family. This will make you understand everything about the Odisha government,' Gandhi said.
'The Odisha government, just like Prime Minister Modi, is being run by Adani,' he said.
Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and his family visited Puri during the Rath Yatra on June 28, before which the industrial group's free food campaign for all devotees was much publicised in the state's media.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal also accompanied Gandhi in the rally. Both leaders also presided over a political affairs committee meeting in Bhubaneswar.
Given the tone and tenor of Gandhi's speech on Friday, it appears that the Congress, which has remained out of power in the state since 1995, will focus on rebuilding its organisation among Dalits and Adivasis around issues of jal, jangal and zameen and the associated cronyism of the state government.
In his speech at the rally, Kharge, too, took aim at the alleged crony practices of the BJP. He accused the party of appointing a chief minister who aides people like 'Adani-Ambani' to corner land for mining purposes. He added that while the Congress was instrumental in securing Adivasi rights through the Forest Rights Act of 2006, the Narendra Modi government has worked hard to weaken it.
He urged people to fight against such a 'usurping' of rights and secure them by strengthening the Congress.
Kharge said that the Modi government allegedly wanted to replace the constitution with the Manusmriti by securing over 400 Lok Sabha seats, but that the 'people of the country' did not give them that chance. He said that it will take a collective fight to save the constitution. 'If the constitution is changed, there will be no universal franchise and no reservations,' he said.
Citing a recent instance where two Dalit men were publicly humiliated by a cow vigilante group in Ganjam district, he said if the constitution is changed, Dalits and Adivasis will not be allowed to enter temples.
At the rally, Gandhi also attacked the Election Commission (EC), terming it an 'organ of the BJP' and accusing the latter of stealing the election across India 'the way it did in Maharashtra'.
'In this, the EC is hatching a new conspiracy and working as a wing of the BJP instead of doing its own job. Over one crore new voters were added between Lok Sabha and assembly polls in Maharashtra. To date, nobody knows who these voters were and where they came from. We asked the EC to provide the voter list and video not once but several times. The EC still hasn't done that,' Gandhi said.
He also said that over 40,000 women were missing in Odisha, and the recent cases of sexual assault point to a larger lack of safety for women in the state.