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PM Narendra Modi liberated Hattee community by granting them tribal status: Amit Shah
Home minister Amit Shah said the scheduled tribe (ST) status would liberate the Hattee community in Simaur, giving them better access to education, politics, and government jobs, the benefits of which will be experienced by the next 25 generations.
Union home minister Amit Shah, who was in poll-bound Himachal on Saturday, said that Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi had ended the Hattee community’s five-decade-long suffering by granting them tribal status.
The community was accorded the tribal status on September 14.
The home minister said the schedule tribe (ST) status would liberate the community, giving them better access to education, politics, and government jobs, the benefits of which will be experienced by the next 25 generations.
The move, he said, is set to help around 1.60 lakh people residing in 389 villages of 154 gram panchayats in the Trans-Giri area of Sirmaur.
Crediting Himachal chief minister (CM) Jai Ram Thakur, Shah said that he not only raised the issue with the Centre several times but also “didn’t stop until the job was done.”
The home minister alleged that after the Hattee community was given the ST tag, Congress tried to provoke the SC community by spreading rumours that their rights will be snatched away. “I am here to assure my Dalit brothers and sisters, that none of their rights, whether reservation or under atrocities Act, will be taken away,” said Shah.
“PM Modi, believes in development, whereas the Congress incites and divides people,” he said.
Asks people to shun “parivaarvad”
In a veiled attack on Congress leader Pratibha Singh, the widow of former CM Virbhadra Singh, a scion of the royal family of Bushahr, Shah asked people to shun “parivaarvad (dynastic politics)”. “The time of kings and queens is over. There are no kings in a democracy,” he said.
He also asked them to change the tradition of “alternating the government every five years”. The comments came a day after Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra addressed a “Parivartan Pratigya” rally in Solan.
Stating that he is confident that the BJP would repeat the government, he said people of the hill state would start a new “rivaz” (tradition), i.e, “Ek Baar Bhajpa, Bar Bar Bhajpa”.
Taking a potshot at the Congress, he said even in Uttarakhand they were claiming that it was their turn to form the government but the BJP had changed the tradition by registering a victory with two-thirds majority.
On development
The home minister said the double-engine government had eliminated the regional divide on development front in Himachal.
He said that when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minster, India’s economy was at the 11th place, however, under the UPA government for two successive terms, it didn’t progress. “People elected BJP eight years ago and the country’s economy is now at the 5th position,” he said.
Shah said the Congress, in its greed for power, didn’t respect the heritage of the country and it was PM Modi who carried out the renovation of Kashi Vishwanath, Badrinath, Kedarnath and most recently the Baba Mahakal temple of Ujjain.
PM Modi has worked to shed colonial traces by renaming Rajpath as Kartvya Path, he added. “The Congress didn’t recognise the contribution of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose which the BJP government has done by installing his statue at Kartvya Path,” he added.
On abrogation of Article 370
Shah said since the abrogation of Article 370, Kashmir was the glittering crown of India. “If you ask the Congress about Article 370, they will run away because it was created by Jawahar Lal Nehru,” he said.
