NEW DELHI: Congress leader
Jairam Ramesh
on Thursday criticised the
Modi government
‘s approach towards
Adivasi rights
, on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Bhagwan Birsa Munda, a great tribal leader and advocate for social justice.
Ramesh, in a statement issued on Friday, accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government of “paying lip service” to the cause of Adivasis while undermining their rights.
Ramesh highlighted that the government’s Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA), named after Bhagwan Birsa Munda, is a “mockery” of the
Forest Rights Act
(FRA), a law passed in 2006 under the leadership of former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. According to Ramesh, the FRA was a groundbreaking law that transferred the authority over forests from the Forest Department to local Gram Sabhas and empowered tribal communities to manage and govern forests democratically.
“The Forest Rights Act (2006) passed by Dr Manmohan Singh’s Government was a revolutionary law,” Ramesh said.
The Congress General Secreatry added, “It transferred power and authority over forests from the Forest Department to the
Gram Sabha
. In another departure from precedent, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs was empowered as the nodal authority to implement the law. The FRA empowered the Adivasi community and Gram Sabhas to govern and manage forests–as a major reform to ensure democratic governance of forests.”
However, Ramesh claimed that DAJGUA undermines this reform. He accused the Modi government of diluting the authority of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and transferring powers to the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change. “DAJGUA fundamentally undoes this historic law and the democratic reform in forest governance,” he stated.
Ramesh also pointed out that DAJGUA has created a parallel structure of “FRA Cells” at the district and sub-divisional levels, which would take control of key responsibilities from the statutory bodies defined under the FRA, such as the Gram Sabha. He slammed the involvement of corporate agencies and technical experts in the process, warning that this could lead to large-scale rejection of Adivasi claims, as seen in Madhya Pradesh with the VanMiTRA app.
“The Forest Department has now been allowed to be a part of the Gram Sabha’s own committee for management of community forest resources – a direct violation of the FRA,” Ramesh said.
