Samikhsya Bureau
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition Congress are on the same ground at least on one issue. Both have shown their reservations on the Supreme Court order on the ‘eviction’ of tribals from forests in the country.
The Supreme Court had on February 13 ordered the chief secretaries of 17 states to evict an estimated one million tribal and other households whose claims of the right to live in forests under the Forest Rights Act 2006 were rejected on various grounds.
In case the eviction is not carried out, the matter will be viewed seriously by this court, the order from the three-member bench comprising Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Indira Banerjee has said. The Supreme Court has asked 21 states to appraise it about the action taken by them.
The next date of hearing is set for July 27 – the effective date by when states will have to evict the tribals to comply with the court orders.
The order has come as a shock to several grassroots organisations working in the interests of the tribals, who have been denied of their basic rights even after the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 – more popularly known as Forest Rights Act – came into force.
Opposition parties accused the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre of failing to defend the rights of the tribals under the FRA, which resulted in the SC order. Grassroots activists allege that the court order is a result of the central government’s love for the corporate sector, which is on a prowl to grab forest land. It threatens to make the FRA, which is supposed to protect the interests of the tribal, redundant.
The FRA was passed during the Congress-led UPA’s first tenure in 2006, requires the government to hand back traditional forest lands to indigenous and other forest-dwellers.
After the SC order, Congress president Rahul Gandhi asked chief ministers of Congress ruled states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to ensure that tribals did not lose their land and livelihood. “The recent order of the Supreme Court deserves your urgent intervention. The court has directed state governments to evict tribals and other forest dwellers whose claims under the Forest Rights Act were rejected,” Gandhi wrote to Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Bhagel.
He also sent similar letters to chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the other two Congress-ruled states having a sizeable population of tribals and forest dwellers. Gandhi asked the chief ministers to file review petition in the Supreme Court.
On the other hand, after the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an affiliate of the RSS, took strong exception to the SC order, BJP president Amit Shah too has announced that he had asked the chief ministers of BJP ruled states to file review petitions in the Supreme Court. The BJP remains committed to the uplift of “our tribal brothers and sisters” and will do everything to protect their rights, he said.
But the order as a response to a PIL has far reaching consequences in political terms. The VKA, which works hard to create a base for the RSS and in the process BJP in tribal land, will face the backlash if the order is implemented. The BJP and Congress will lose the trust of the tribals, whose livelihood depend on the forests, and also votes if they do not support them.
