While the CJP's Gen Z protest ended with a handshake with the union ministers, these poor tribals protesting for their Jal Jungle Zameen were simply shooed away from the protest site without even a written assurance from the government.
“Whether it is Delhi or Budhel Khan, whether it is lakhs of people or a few thousand, whether it is an educated lot or an Adivasi, an accountable government is every Indian's right.”
While the CJP's Gen Z protest ended with a handshake with the union ministers, these poor tribals protesting for their Jal Jungle Zameen were simply shooed away from the protest site without even a written assurance from the government. These men and women from the tribal communities of one of the remotest and most underdeveloped parts of India are victims of the Ken Betva Project, India's first river interlinking initiative. They say they've lost their homes, their land, their access to forest resources, and the very core of their tribal identity because of this project. And it has not only stripped the tribals of their modest means of survival, but many of them have not even been given adequate compensation. Some families say they've not received enough money to build a new life elsewhere. Others say they've not received any compensation at all because of alleged corruption in the distribution of compensatory funds. For almost a month, they staged a protest India has never seen before. They lay on funeral pyres, climbed the gallows in a symbolic act of defiance and smeared mud on their faces. For nearly 20 days, this man, Amit Bhatnagar, was on a hunger strike. Many tribal women also fasted with him. But on the morning of July 19, a day after Sonam Vangchuk was forcefully hospitalized in Delhi, Amit Bhatnagar too was taken away by the police and MPs Chhatarpur and the protest site was cleared. He refused to end his fast even then. This young woman, who was leading the protests alongside him, said that the police used force to dismantle the protest site simply because they wanted to silence the allegations of a Rs 400 crore corruption scam in the disbursement of compensatory funds Days after the police action Amit Bhatnagar ended his fast under alleged mounting pressure The government simply said that a survey would be conducted to potentially include those families who claim they've been excluded from the list of beneficiaries. Now, these are similar assurances to those given by the government to end the first round of protests in April. When I went on the ground to cover these protests, many of the people I spoke to said that the government had given them false assurances or fresh surveys earlier as well simply to end the protests and later nothing happened. The larger point I am trying to make is look at the dichotomy. While you cannot compare an uprising of lakhs of people several meters away from the Indian parliament with a protest by a few thousand in one of the remotest parts of India, both are ultimately about the rights of Indian citizens, about social justice and in the tribal's case about their entire lives, livelihoods and identity. On the one hand, the senior most ministers of the government go and speak to the protesters multiple times, give them written assurances and afford them complete bargaining power, which is great. This is how a functioning democracy should be. But on the other hand, these poor people who live with very meager means were thrown out of the protest site with no clear indication of how they would be adequately compensated or rehabilitated. While our youth get to celebrate their victory as they should, these tribal protesters are invisibilized yet again. Whether it is Delhi or Budhel Khan, whether it is lakhs of people or a few thousand, whether it is an educated lot or an Adivasi, an accountable government is every Indian's right.
