PRAKASH Ambedkar, president of Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA) or Deprived Majority Front political party, has said that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi has deliberately fuelled ethnic violence in the north-eastern state of Manipur to fulfil a plan -- awarding a platinum mining contract in the state to a noted industrialist.
The 69-year-old former parliamentarian, who is the grandson of BR Ambedkar, India's iconic Dalit leader who is called the father of the country's Constitution, told reporters in Aurangabad in the western state of Maharashtra earlier this week that a big reserve of platinum reserves have been unearthed in Manipur and it is confined to the land where the tribal Kuki community resides in the hills.
Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi president Prakash Ambedkar (ANI Photo)
He alleged that the Modi government has planned to give the mining rights to the prime minister's "industrialist friend Adani" and all that is happening in Manipur is "a ploy to push the mining contract", The Indian Express reported.
Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP is also in power in Manipur.
According to Ambedkar, the Adivasi Hill Council (tribal hill body) and not the state assembly of the northeastern state can allow the mining right and that the former has opposed the contract being given to a private entity.
The VBA chief said the council has said that if the mining rights are with the Indian government, it will willingly vacate the land and agree but will oppose if the contract is given to private players, the report added.
The veteran leader said the BJP government in New Delhi raked up the tribal reservation issues of the majority Meiteis, who reside in the plains along Manipur's border with the state of Assam, which is also ruled by the saffron party, to counter the Kukis who are not in agreement with conceding the mining rights to private players.
Ambedkar said while the two communities believe they are fighting for their respective rights, they were being pitted against each other to fulfil the larger plan which is to push the platinum-mining rights to a private player.
He said the mining contract would hugely help the private players to make profit.
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