New Parliament inauguration: Adivasi Congress to protest “insult” to President Murmu

The All India Adivasi Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of "insulting" tribals by not getting the country's first tribal president Droupadi Murmu to inaugurate the new Parliament building, as it announced a nationwide protest against the move on May 26.

New Delhi:The Congress on Thursday said its Tribals Welfare Department will stage a nationwide demonstration on May 26 to protest the insult of President Droupadi Murmu, who has not been invited by the Centre to inaugurate the new Parliament building.

“Having an Adivasi woman as President of India in Droupadi Murmu is a matter of pride for all of us. The Parliament is represented by the President, the Rajya Sabha chairman and the Lok Sabha Speaker. Ideally, the President should have inaugurated the new Parliament building but our Prime Minister is doing it on May 28. Worse, they have not even invited the President to the inauguration ceremony. Earlier, they had not invited former President Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit, to the foundation laying ceremony of the new Parliament building,” All-India Adivasi Congress chief Shivaji Rao Moghe said.

“This is an insult not only to the Tribals across the country but to women also. This is unfortunate and an insult to Indian democracy. We will protest against this injustice tomorrow across the country in villages and blocks,” he said. According to Moghe, the President is not only the supreme commander of the Armed forces but also has the authority to summon and prorogue the Parliament sessions.

“Why is the PM not clarifying the issue when 20 parties have opposed his decision to inaugurate the new Parliament building? It shows they want to insult the Adivasis. How did such a mindset against the Tribals and Dalits develop in the BJP,” he said. According to the Adivasi leader, “The Tribals have protected the forests for ages and keeping this in mind, the previous Manmohan Singh government had formulated a law to protect the Adivasis in 2006.”

“But the BJP does not respect the Tribals and continues to refer to the community as “Vanvasi”, which is considered a derogatory term. The Harijan term was considered derogatory for the Dalits and was removed from common usage through a law. Why can’t the same be done with the term Vanvasi, which hurts us,” said Moghe.

“The correct term is Adivasi. The government has been told several times by the all-India organizations of the Tribals that the reference to the community should be changed from Vanvasi to Adivasi but they don’t care,” he said. The Congress leader charged the BJP was taking away land belonging to Tribals.

“Even the BJP state governments neglect the Adivasi community. The BJP is diluting the Gram Sabha control over land takeover in Tribal areas and is giving away forest land to private contractors. PESA is also not being implemented by the BJP-ruled states,” he said.

Moghe said he has instructed the state units of the All India Adivasi Congress to organise the protest on May 25 in a peaceful way. “We will do it our way. It will be peaceful. We may conduct small marches, display posters or meet people. We will not create any law and order situation,” he said.

Over the past few days, the Congress-led opposition has come together to boycott the inauguration of the new building saying there was no point attending the event when the BJP had sucked the soul away from the Parliament.