The Adivasis of erstwhile undivided Adilabad district, if not all those from across Telangana, are alienated from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi if the shouting down of Asifabad MLA Kova Laxmi at Saturday’s public meeting at Hyderabad is any indication.
Resentment against the ruling party was brewing among the aboriginal tribes and came out in the open first when they stayed away from Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao’s public meeting at Utnoor on November 5 and now when the legislator invoked the name of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao during her speech at the meeting to recount his efforts towards their development.
Ms. Laxmi is the daughter of Kotnak Bheem Rao, a Minister in the undivided Andhra Pradesh cabinet who, in his capacity as member of Tribal Advisory Council, gave his concurrence for including the Lambada community into the list of Scheduled Tribes in the State in 1976. “Instead of trying to rectify the mistake that her father had committed, she stood in support of non-tribals and Lambadas who have encroached upon even the livelihoods of Adivasis during her tenure,” charged a Raj Gond teacher recalling the MLA’s attending meetings of non-tribals seeking dilution of Land Transfer Act in 2015 and 2016. She also allegedly secretly attended private functions of Lambada people during the current agitation.
As part of the development done for Adivasis, the TRS claims to have named Asifabad district after Raj Gond martyr Kumram Bheem and established a tribal museum and memorial at Jodeghat in Keramri mandal and laid roads. “Naming Asifabad after Kumram Bheem and a tribal museum has not eliminated our poverty,” the teacher pointed out.
“The Government should have ensured that we get what is due to us. Instead, it went on turning a blind eye to the injustices caused to us by the Lambada tribe,” he added. “The next phase of the movement against Lambadas is to make the elected public representatives resign their posts and join us,” revealed Kanaka Ambaji Rao, president of Haimendorf Youth, an organisation of ethnic tribe youngsters. Majority of the public representatives belong to the aboriginal tribes.
As the movement gets stronger, the Adivasis have also planned to obstruct Lambada officials from attending offices in near future. The leaders of the current movement are likely to visit the North east and Northern States with Adivasi population to spread awareness among the public representatives there.
The local leaders will meet aboriginal MPs, Ministers and MLAs apprising them of the injustices caused to their counterparts in Telangana. They will in turn voice the concerns in Parliament and respective Assemblies to build pressure on the Union and State governments.
