Election 2024 | Chhattisgarh: No country for Adivasis
The HinduPublished : Apr 30, 2024 18:34 IST - 7 MINS READ The Lok Sabha election discourse in Chhattisgarh is centred around a model of governance and economic development upheld by the ruling BJP and the Congress. It is all about 10 years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule at the Centre and five years of Bhupesh Baghel’s Congress rule in the State before the BJP came to power over three months ago.” Most of the hoardings across the capital, Raipur, and multimedia A giant hoarding outside Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai’s house at Bhagat Singh Chowk celebrates the revocation of Articles 370 and 35 in Jammu and Kashmir. “Both the BJP and the Congress work for corporate interests at the cost of peoples’ right over jal, jangal, zameen,” said Sudiep Shrivastava, a leader of the Hamar Raj Party, citing the example of the ongoing felling of trees in the biodiversity-rich Hasdeo Arand region, part of the Parsa East Kente Basan Phase II mining projects. “The only difference between the two parties is that Congress is the BJP minus Hindutva playbook,” said Shrivastava, adding: “None of the 11 candidates fielded by the BJP and Congress can debate on the Constitution in the context of the rights of the indigenous people.” In fact, the claims of both the previous Congress and the current BJP governments around the purchase of forest produce from tribal people at remunerative prices do not ring true in many Adivasi villages. It is Lord Ram’s maternal home.” At an election rally in Kanker on April 22, Union Home Minister Amit Shah blamed the Congress for poverty in Chhattisgarh.