The conference of Scheduled Tribes organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party as part of its planned community-based mobilisations in the run-up to the 2023 Assembly elections in the State witnessed a massive turnout in Ballari on Sunday. Most of the people belonged to the Valmiki (Naik) community and arrived mainly from Raichur, Yadgir, Koppal, Vijayanagara, and Chitradurga districts apart from Ballari.
BJP national president J.P. Nadda, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, party’s national general secretary C.T. Ravi, Ministers Govind M. Karjol and B. Sriramulu, Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and Arjun Munda, who addressed the crowd, sought to draw the attention of the people towards the State government’s recent decision to increase quota for the Scheduled Castes from 15% to 17% and Scheduled Tribes from 3% to 7% and attacked the Opposition Congress for not doing anything similar during its regime in the past.
“You [Congress] saw the SCs, STs, and OBC communities as vote bank and did nothing for their development. Siddaramaiah (Leader of the Opposition) always claims that backward communities are with the Congress. If he comes and sees this massive gathering, he would realise which party the backward communities are with,” Mr. Bommai said.
Mr. Nadda, who began his speech with a tribute to Madakari Nayaka of Chitradurga, one of the icons of Naik community who fought Mysuru ruler Hyder Ali in the 18th century, went on to attack the Congress for what he termed as “betrayal of the oppressed sections”.
“Congress did hardly anything for the development of backward and tribal communities. It betrayed the aspirations of these communities. It is only after the BJP assumed power at the Centre that an Adivasi woman could become the President of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi honoured Adivasis by making Droupadi Murmu the President. Why didn’t such a thought flash in anybody’s mind in the last 70 years? The BJP is working towards bringing all the marginalised communities into mainstream,” Mr. Nadda said.
Hailing Mr. Bommai’s government in the State, Mr. Nadda called upon the people to protect the government which, he said, was working for the upliftment of the oppressed sections. “Mr. Bommai is working day and night for the development of all sections. The government is concerned about Dalits, backward classes, poor and marginalised sections of the society and it is your responsibility to protect the government,” Mr. Nadda said.
“We are not complacent and we will not keep quiet just by increasing the reservations to SCs and STs. We will continue to do everything for the development of these communities,” Mr. Bommai said.
Mr. Munda said that the Union government had released funds for the Karnataka government for developing 500 tribal hamlets into modern villages in the State. He also added that 12 Ekalavya Model Residential Schools would be built in the State, including one in Ballari.
