National vice-president of All India Congress Committee Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday played his master stroke and told a huge gathering of tribals to join politics as he wants that India's prime minister, chief ministers, members of Parliament and legislators come out of tribal communities.
'I realised, after becoming a member of Indira Gandhi's family, that she had an immense love for tribals,' the Congress president said.
Left parties on Monday condemned the brutal Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh saying they disapproved violent retribution against political opponents, but opposed the killings of and atrocities against innocent tribals there.
According to the police, these villages have never seen unfurling or hoisting of the national flag since 1947, but that will change when its residents will join the rest of the country in celebrating Republic Day, which commemorates the day when the Constitution came into effect in 1950.
Vat Vrikshya -- banyan tree in Sanskrit -- helps tribal women, with absolutely zero formal education, set up businesses.
He said the then prime minister Manmohan Singh had given a speech in which he had said Muslims have the first right to the country's resources.
Striking a different note from the government on last week's anti-Naxal operation in Chhattisgarh that left 19 tribals killed, Congress on Tuesday blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state for the "botch-up", saying it has resulted in the loss of lives of innocent tribals and minors.
Former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba, who was released from the Nagpur Central Jail on Thursday after his acquittal in an alleged Maoist links case, said it's a 'wonder that he could come out alive' despite suffering the 'brutal' jail life.
'Every report I filed for Rediff.com on the professor's incarceration, would leave me wondering for days, at the depth of the State's malevolence towards this disabled professor, and his equally deep capacity to tolerate it,' recalls Jyoti Punwani.' 'No country in the world would do what our country was doing to someone so helpless.'
Coincidentally, the two first-term members got seats adjacent to each other in the House.
A one-day statewide bandh called by the Congress to protest against the Kanker rapes involving minor inmates of a government-run tribal girls' hostel was a complete success across Chhattisgarh on Wednesday.
Rahul Gandhi also attacks Modi and RSS in Bastar.
'Rahul should have learnt so much in the last 20 years. But give him a mic and he begins to talk without thinking about its consequences.'
Congress tribal leaders led by former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi on Wednesday opposed the candidature of PA Sangma for President, saying the Nationalist Congress Party leader was "playing into the hands of communal forces"
"This is all about distraction, basic issue is of caste census and participation, in whose hands is the money of the country going. They (BJP) don't want to discuss this issue, they are afraid of it and run away from it," Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament.
Of the 12 seats in Bastar, the Congress won eight. The BJP had secured 11 of these seats in 2008.
The Naxal movement has such a complex history that several books have been written to understand it. Bastar: The Naxal Story seeks to reduce it to bullet points and stereotypes, observes Deepa Gahlot.
Police earlier claimed the three "Naxalites" were killed on a forested hill between Bhomra-Hurtarai villages under Koyalibeda police station limits on Sunday morning in an encounter with security personnel during an anti-Naxal operation.
Fourteen Naxals, including four Naxal commanders, were killed during an encounter with police near Pamed in Chhattisgarh's tribal-dominated Bijapur district adjoining Andhra Pradesh early today, police sources said. The encounter took place at a hill near Talperu river in Dharmavaram village, five kilometres from Pamed adjoining Andhra Pradesh.
In its complaint against Shah, the Congress told the EC that the home minister claimed in a speech in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon on October 16 that "...Bhupesh Baghel's government, for appeasement politics and vote bank politics, lynched Chhattisgarh's son Bhuneshwar Sahoo and got him killed..."
"Some unknown persons had garlanded shoes on the statue of Ambedkar in Gopalpur village of Mohla Police station, about 165 km from state capital Raipur, on Sunday," Rajnandgaon District Superintendent of Police V K Choubey told PTI.
The ability to push populist economic programmes and splendid organizational skills have propelled 56-year-old ayurveda doctor Raman Singh to a second consecutive term in Chhattisgarh. It was a long journey for the doctor with a squeaky clean image. The party sent him to Raipur as the unit president of the newly-formed state, from where he fought to earn the distinction of becoming the first-elected chief minister
The commission is still awaiting recorded statement of 20 other victims of sexual violence by the security personnel.
An FIR was lodged against DU Professor Nandini Sundar for the murder of Shamnath Baghel, based on the complaint of his wife on Saturday.
Sodi Sambo can now have her treatment done in New Delhi. Five days after the 28-year-old tribal woman from Gompad village in Dantewada district was detained by the Chhattisgarh government on suspicious grounds, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the state administration to permit her to travel to New Delhi.
It was one of the key promises made by the Congress ahead of the 2018 assembly polls, following which the party returned to power in the state after a gap of 15 years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday attacked the Congress over party president Mallikarjun Kharge's recent remark on Lord Ram and Lord Shiva, and accused the opposition party of trying to divide Hindus for its appeasement politics.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday attacked the Congress, saying it skipped the meeting convened to select the new Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) as he is a Dalit and this reflected the anti-Scheduled Castes mindset of the main opposition party.
A human rights advocate based in Chhtaisgarh was allegedly picked up by the local police for being a "Naxalite supporter".
As controversy continues to rage over the last month's killings in Chhattisgarh, Union Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo said 17 of the 19 slain by the CRPF and state police were unarmed and innocent.
Four more persons, including a teacher, were arrested Tuesday in connection with the rape of minor inmates of a government-run residential school for tribal girls at Jhaliyamari village in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh, police said.
Chief Minister Ajit Jogi said she will visit the tribal dominated Bastar and Sarguja districts on the first day and address two party rallies in their district headquarters Jagdalpur and Ambikapur.
On seeing them, Gandhi got off his vehicle, walked up to them and shook hands with several people in the crowd.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday scored a hat-trick of victories in the Chhattisgarh assembly elections, winning 49 of 90 seats, thwarting the Congress' bid to wrest power after a decade.
BJP national president Amit Shah asserted that the last 15 years rule of the BJP is a model of an ideal state. "Raman Singh government has successfully tried to contain the Naxal and made the state an education hub. This manifesto is for Naya Chhattisgarh.
Nitin Gadkari and Prakash Javdekar lobbied Jual Oram to change process, that may now open a Pandora's box.
Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) R K Vij told UNI that four constables of the Naga Battalion, accompanied by two special police officers were returning after patrolling duty.
The complainant had claimed that Sundar and others had visited Nama village and asked Shamnath to support the naxal cause
The former had been celebrating completion of four years in power while the latter had been distributing school bags embossed with the CM's picture.
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