Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda on Tuesday targetted the Indian National Congress’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which recently passed through his constituency in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, for giving tribal icon Birsa Munda’s birthplace in Ulihatu village a miss, saying this showed how the party viewed the nation and its people.
While replying to the discussion on Bills to amend the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes list for Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Munda took aim at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi without specifically naming him. This came after Congress leaders, during the discussion, tried to corner the government over the widespread protests in Ladakh seeking statehood and Sixth Schedule status.
In his reply to the discussion, Mr. Munda said, “We are seeing this Yatra being done. Today, I was informed that the persons leading this effort were passing through Khunti district in Jharkhand, While they did express their political agenda, they could not even take the trouble to visit Bhagwan Birsa Munda’s birthplace in Ulihatu. This is the same village where PM Modi visited and put soil from its earth on his head as a sign of respect before launching the ₹24,000 crore PM-JANMAN package for PVTGs.”
