PM Modi trying to ‘cheat’ tribals during poll season: Cong chief

NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of remembering tribals only ahead of elections and said his government is trying to befool the community by changing names of old schemes.

Kharge also asked why the expenditure on tribals has reduced drastically during the Modi government.

Kharge made the remarks after Prime Minister Modi released the first instalment of Rs 540 crore to one lakh tribal beneficiaries of a rural housing scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM-JANMAN) via video conferencing and said the 10 years of his government have been dedicated to the poor.

“Even though for elections, at least the Prime Minister has remembered the welfare of tribals and various tribes today after 10 years,” Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X.

“We want to ask three questions to the Modi government - Why has crime against tribals increased by 48.15 per cent compared to 2013? (NCRB). Why are the double engine governments of the BJP completely failing to implement the ‘Forest Rights Act, 2006’.

“Before this event, why was there a continuous decline in the expenditure of the Development Scheme for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) of the Modi government’s Ministry of Tribal Affairs? It has fallen from Rs 250 crore in 2018-19 to only Rs 6.48 crore in 2022-23. This is what the parliamentary committee says,” the Congress chief asked.

Kharge alleged that the Modi government is trying to “cheat” the tribal community during the election season by changing the name of the old failed scheme.

“Preservation of water, forest, land and tribal civilisation is our duty and the Congress party will continue to fight for the rights of the tribal society of the country,” he said.

“Modi has reached out to those who were never cared for earlier,” he added.

The budget of many welfare schemes for the Scheduled Tribes has risen by five times and the scholarship for tribal students has grown by two-and-a-half times in the last 10 years, Modi said, adding that the work is on to construct more than 500 Eklavya model school for them while only 90 existed earlier.