Tribals have first right over land: Rahul Gandhi

Mahuva (Gujarat): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said he felt the pain of farmers, youth and tribals after meeting them and listening to their problems during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

He urged the tribals of South Gujarat to choose between the Congress and the BJP, saying if they choose the Congress, they would get forest rights, good health and education, and if they choose the BJP, they will have their unfulfilled dreams.

Addressing his first public meeting after the election dates were announced in Gujarat at Mahuva in Surat district, he said they are the first owners of the country.

Rahul Gandhi said the tribals have been complaining that their land is being given away to industrialists without even informing them. "This is happening here in Gujarat as well," he said, complimenting party's Vansda candidate Anant Patel, who has been fighting for the rights of the tribals.

Rahul Gandhi's presence after a long break is expected to give the Congress' campaign a boost in the tribal area where it has a hold even as the BJP is trying to make inroads into it.

In the previous elections, out of 27 ST seats in Gujarat, the Congress had won 15 seats, the BJP got 9 seats, the BTP two and independent one. Citing a book that his grandmother Indira Gandhi gave him at the age of 6-7 years, Rahul said he learnt a lot from the book. He said his grandmother explained to him that tribals (adivasis) had the first right to the land. Mentioning about the laws and acts brought in by the UPA government for the benefit of tribals, he alleged that the BJP has not implemented them in the states where it is in power. "The BJP does not call you adivasi but calls you vanvaasi," he said, adding that, "the BJP wants you to stay in the jungle and they snatch away your land.

If this is the way it continues, then in about 10 years, your land will be in the hands of two to three select industrialists."

Rahul Gandhi asserted that the tribals had the first right over land. He also said that the BJP does not want them to stay in the cities and their children become doctors or engineers or for that matter fly planes.

The Congress leader, who took a break from his Bharat Jodo Yatra, said that it pains him to listen about the problems faced by the farmers, youth and the tribals. Farmers, he said, are not getting the right value of their produce and their loans are not waived off and the youth are unemployed.

Elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.