Rahul Gandhi says Hasdeo protests ‘justified’, expects positive results 'in a couple of weeks' https://www.adaniwatch.org/rahul_gandhi_says_hasdeo_protests_justified
A special correspondent Jun 02, 2022 On 23 May 2022, Rahul Gandhi said that he ‘has a problem’ with his own party’s decision to expand coal mining operations in the Hasdeo Aranya forests while responding to a query during an address to students at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He termed the ongoing protests by Adivasi residents of Hasdeo ‘justified’ and said that he does not defend the decision of the Congress governments in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan that will lead to expansion of coal mining into adjacent forests. Gandhi added that he is ‘internally working within the party’ on the issue and that ‘results will be visible in a couple of weeks.’
Gandhi’s commitment to the cause of the rights of local communities in Hasdeo Aranya in Chhattisgarh, and his criticisms of the Adani Group, are reminiscent of his younger days when he took on the might of another powerful conglomerate, Vedanta Group, to stand up for tribal rights in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. The Vedanta Group is owned by billionaire businessman Anil Agarwal. In 2010, Gandhi took the side of the Dongria Kondh tribal community in Odisha that was seeking to protect the Niyamgiri Hills, a mountain range that the community holds as sacred, from a Vedanta bauxite mine.