‘Jal, Jungle, Jameen’: Rahul Gandhi’s message to tribals in Jharkhand

Addressing a rally in poll-bound Jharkhand, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the BJP of trying to snatch ‘Jal, Jungle, Jameen’ (water, forest, land) from the tribals in the state.

“PM Modi calls you ‘vanvasi’ (forest dwellers) as the BJP believes that land, forest, and water belong to it, the RSS, and capitalists. It believes in grabbing tribal land under its newly-coined word, ‘development.’ It wants to snatch ‘Jal, Jungle, Jameen’ from you,” he said at a rally in Simdega on Friday.

Further, Gandhi, who has been claiming that the Constitution was under ‘constant attack’ from the BJP, reiterated his charge, adding that the Congress-led INDIA bloc was making ‘all efforts’ to ‘protect’ the Constitution.

“The Constitution is under constant attack and it needs to be protected. We will remove the 50% reservation at any cost. If voted to power, we will raise the reservation of Scheduled Tribes to 28% from 26%,; from 10% to 12% for the Scheduled Castes, and for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), to 27% from 14%,” the Rae Bareli MP stated.

On caste census, another topic he has raised regularly, Gandhi mentioned the exercise was a ‘must’ to identify the participation of tribals, Dalits, and OBCs in various institutions and wealth of the country.

The ex-Congress chief, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, is in Jharkhand for the second time after the assembly poll schedule was declared.

The polling will be held on November 13 and 20 while the counting of votes is scheduled for November 23.