Preparing for tribal massacre?
The northeast has always been this burning shoulder for India. BJP and Sangh Parivar are wreaking havoc on the parts that are right under the shade of an anaconda called China, creating many Kashmirs.
Assam and other parts of northeast are simmering owing to the citizenship amendment bill that was brought in the recent times. As if to rub salt on the wound of tribals living in forest areas, the Supreme Court has ruled that about 10 lakh of them have to be evicted from the forests since ages from 16 forest regions.
Whether this order would help preserve the forests or not, this would most certainly contribute to riots breaking out leading to massacre of tribals at large scale.
More than 11 lakh families have been ordered to be evicted owing to the fact that their rights over their land has been rejected. They have to vacate the forests before July 27. Failing to evict them would be taken seriously, the SC has said.
Since the SC ruling has to be followed by other states too, the number of displaced would be even higher. According to the data available by December 2018, only 18.89 lac applications have been accepted among 42.19 lakh applications that were submitted to claim land rights. Which means about 23 lakh families are facing the threat of eviction.
This number is more than double the number mentioned in the court. This will certainly give rise to a war like situation between the forest department and the tribal people.
Those who live in the forest have a very deeper relationship with their surroundings. They depend on the forest for their livelihood. The fact that they harm the forest is a big lie created by the state. They love and worship forest like their god. Owing to them, timber smugglers and corporates haven’t been able to set foot inside the forest and this has saved many precious forests.
Forest department uses various tricks to uproot them. They want to ensure people get fed up and leave on their own. Now with court having permitted it, one can only imagine the torture forest department would mete out on the dwellers. There is a major conspiracy that has been hatched by the central government behind this verdict. The lawyer who had to argue for the tribals didn’t do his job at all. This contributed to the contrary verdict that would compromise on the forest dwellers.
If the tribals want any deeds or documents, they have to depend on the government officers. Most of them are illiterates and hence they couldn’t present documents at all. Owing to all this, the court ordered against the original inhabitants of the forest.
Narendra Modi government has completely ignored the welfare of tribals. They have not only failed in defending the forest rights act, but are involved in making it weak. Has this order been issued to save the forest?
No is the answer. The only reason behind this is to uproot the inhabitants and hand over forests into the hands of corporate forces. There are many forests in this country where humans have not been able to even set their foot in. Their resources is now enticing the evil eyes of corporates.
But tribals are a big challenge while the big machines would attempt to enter the forests. So to uproot them and destroy them forever, courts have been used. This may turn the Adivasis against the country itself. In Northeast, Naxals are using forest dwellers to the hilt.
If the state decides to use army to vacate the tribals, naxals may as well use this opportunity to push their agenda. This may even turn some adivasis into criminals. Hence it is necessary that the government acts on behalf of the Adivasis.
They are a part of the forests. Adivasis are children of forests and are citizens of this country. We cannot perceive forests without them. The government needs to take them into confidence and they have to be carefully rehabilitated.
Only then we can reduce the probable friction. Else, while fighting against external enemies such as China and Pakistan, we may be forced to fight our own people too.
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Rupee hits all-time low for second time in a week
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 31 paise to settle at 91.99 against the US dollar on Wednesday, touching the lowest closing level for the second time in less than a week, amid increased month-end demand for the greenback.
Forex traders said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe offered quiet reassurance. However, increased month-end demand for the American currency as well as the ongoing geopolitical tensions dented investors' sentiments.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 91.60 and touched an early high of 91.50, but pared all the gains to touch an intra-day low of 91.99 against the greenback.
The domestic unit settled 31 paise down, revisiting its lowest-ever closing level of 91.99 against the greenback. The Indian currency previously ended at this level on January 23 when it also hit its all-time intraday low of 92 against the US dollar.
On Tuesday, the rupee rebounded from its all-time low levels and gained 22 paise to close at 91.68 against the US dollar.
Analysts said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe bolstered investor sentiment.
India and the European Union on Tuesday announced the conclusion of negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA), under which a number of domestic sectors such as apparel, chemicals and footwear will get duty-free entry into the 27-nation bloc, while the EU will get access to the Indian market at concessional duty for cars and wines, an official said.
The deal has been dubbed the "mother of all deals" as it will create a market of about 2 billion people.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at 96.14.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.43 per cent lower at USD 67.28 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 487.20 points to settle at 82,344.68, while Nifty surged 167.35 points to 25,342.75.
Foreign Institutional Investors turned net buyers and purchased equities worth Rs 480.26 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
