The Congress on Friday shared a video of Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi highlighting his plan to nurture tribal leaders and support their community’s fight against social injustice and dispossession of land due to digitalisation.
The six-minute video shows LoP Rahul Gandhi voicing the party’s solidarity with tribals and the Congress’ resolve to stand with them to fight for their rights.
“My interest is to nurture tribal leaders in the party. We want the dynamic leaders who are serious about serving the community to step forward and hold posts of district heads, along with those from communities like Dalits, OBCs and others,” LoP Gandhi said.
“We have launched an experiment in Gujarat and appointed 41 district heads and the situation is bound to improve in the times to come when their united and empowered voice gains strength,” LoP Gandhi said.
“Across the country, we are going to empower district presidents to function as nodal officers and run the party, uphold the ideology of the Congress and add new members,” he said, adding that the party would offer financial support to district heads.
The LoP said the party wants decisions to be taken in districts like Ahmedabad and Banaskantha not Delhi.
“It will take some time but we want 10-15 tribal leaders to be groomed in each district. We want leaders who can relate with people on the ground and offer solutions to their problems,” the Congress MP said.
Rahul Gandhi also discussed problems of tribals after digitalisation of land records and their loss of ownership.
One of the suggestions discussed was to set up a tribal legal council which would argue cases of land ownership of tribals in courts.
The non-creation of forest right committees under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 in the country was also raised by one of the tribal leaders during the meeting.
