Rahul Gandhi vows grassroots decision-making and legal support to defend tribal land rights

Party to appoint tribal district heads, support land-rights fights and decentralise decision-making amid digitalisation challenges

New Delhi: Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Friday announced a Congress initiative to groom tribal leaders at the district level and back their struggle against social injustice and land dispossession arising from digitalisation. He said the party will appoint district presidents from tribal, Dalit, OBC and other marginalised communities, provide them financial support and decentralise decision-making from Delhi to the grassroots.

“My interest is to nurture tribal leaders in the party. We want dynamic leaders who are serious about serving the community to step forward and hold posts of district heads,” Gandhi said, highlighting that 41 district heads have already been appointed in Gujarat as part of an “experiment” whose impact will grow as empowered voices unite.

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Across the country, Gandhi explained, district presidents will act as nodal officers running the party, upholding Congress ideology and recruiting new members. He envisages each district grooming 10–15 tribal leaders capable of relating to local concerns and delivering practical solutions.

Addressing the digitalisation of land records, Gandhi noted that many tribal families have lost ownership of ancestral land. He proposed setting up a tribal legal council to represent them in court and voiced concerns over the failure to constitute Forest Rights Committees under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

A tribal leader at the meeting underscored the urgency of registering forest rights, stressing that without functional committees at the village level, adivasi communities remain vulnerable to dispossession. The Congress MP assured that remedying these omissions will be central to the party’s district-level engagement strategy.