NewDelhi: Opposition leader of India’s lower house of parliament Rahul Gandhi has express his anger on government after police and villagers clash in Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo Aranya. It began in the context of protests against silvicultural Küchenmeister against the felling of trees there, in the opinion of locals it was a violation of the elementary rights of the indigenous peoples who inhabit it.
Jojing to social media platform X (formerly twitter), Gandhi protested against the action of the government and said that, The violent use of police force in Hasdeo Aranya, where indigenous people’s forests and their lands are being taken, is violation of their rights.
The government forgot the pain of Hasdeo’s Indigenous people.
Gandhi also remembered that when the Congress party was in power in Chhattisgarh, the state assembly unanimously resolved not to cut trees in Hasdeo. Which only meant, ‘unanimous’ – even the opposition was included here earlier, the BJP. But when the new government came into power, this resolution does not matter, the pain and rights of Hasdeo’s indigenous people does not matter,” he said.
Attacks on Tribal Rights
Indirectly expressing his criticism of the BJP, Gandhi said that the ruling party succumbs to big business and corporations while trampling on the environment and ordinary people’s rights. Besides, the anti-Bahujan BJP is ready to inflict a lot of damage on environment and people for the sake of its friends only. With BJP already in power in sixteen states, the rights of the tribal people are under threat in each of them. The Congress party will ensure protection of rights of our tribal brothers and sisters on water, forest and land.”
Police and Van People Violence
The confrontations, according to reports, began on Thursday morning while the authorities proceeded to cut down trees in Hasdeo forest area in contradiction to the Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti and the Hasdeo forest villagers. During protest, actions worsened and thus there was a scuffle between the police and the protesters. Several persons on both sides of the divide were injured a protester in the protest committee was reportedly struck on the head. In the scuffle some of the police force and villagers sustained injuries.
The conflict refreshes a debate of environmentalism and native title in the Hasdeo forest that is significant from both the ecological and native community point of view.