NEW DELHI: Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of “stealing” the rights of Bahujans by removing their names from voter lists and “disappearing” forest rights titles of Adivasis.In a post on X Thursday, Gandhi alleged, citing a news report, that in Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district, more than half of the forest rights titles have vanished from government records, while in Bastar, 2,788 such titles have “suddenly” gone missing.“Kagaz mitao, Adhikaar churao – the BJP has made this a new weapon for the oppression of Bahujans. On one hand, they remove the names of Dalits and backward classes from the voter list, and on the other, they make the forest rights titles of tribals ‘disappear,’” he wrote.

He said the Congress had enacted the Forest Rights Act to protect the water, forest, and land of tribals, while the BJP is weakening it and “snatching their primary rights.” Calling tribals the “first owners” of the country, Gandhi asserted, “We will protect their rights at all costs.”The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006- also known as the Forest Rights Act- grants legal rights to forest-dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional communities for the ownership and use of forest land and resources, reported ANI.The law was enacted to address historical wrongs from the colonial era, when Adivasis and other forest dwellers were criminalised for using forest resources.