Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday launched a sharp attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), accusing it of deliberately erasing the rights of marginalized communities, especially Adivasis and Bahujans. Highlighting the disappearance of forest rights records, Gandhi claimed that the BJP has made “Kagaz mitao, Adhikaar churao” (Erase documents, steal rights) its new strategy to oppress these communities.

In a post on social media platform X, Gandhi referred to a news report exposing the alleged disappearance of forest rights titles from government records in Chhattisgarh. Citing the report, he said that thousands of forest land ownership documents, particularly in Bastar and Rajnandgaon districts, have suddenly vanished from official records. “In Rajnandgaon alone, more than half of the forest rights titles are missing. In Bastar, 2,788 such titles have disappeared,” he stated.

Gandhi accused the BJP of systematically removing Dalits and backward castes from the electoral rolls and simultaneously erasing Adivasi land claims, calling it a deliberate move to deprive them of their legal entitlements. He stressed that while the Congress had introduced the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 to restore dignity and ownership rights to forest dwellers, the BJP is working to undermine it.

The FRA was enacted to address the historical injustices faced by forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes (STs) and other traditional communities, whose rights were ignored or denied during colonial and post-independence periods. The law grants legal ownership, access, and usage rights to forest land and resources to eligible communities.

Calling Adivasis the “first owners” of the land, Gandhi reaffirmed the Congress party’s commitment to defending their constitutional rights. “We will protect their rights at any cost,” he said.