Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused the BJP of trying to snatch the tribals’ water, forest, and land in Jharkhand. Addressing a public rally in Simdega, the Leader of Opposition said that BJP has always insulted tribal identity and has tried to snatch away their rights, but Congress will protest their water, forest and land at all costs.

The Congress MP further said that PM Modi calls the tribals vanvasi (forest dwellers) as his party believes that land, forest, and water belong to it, the RSS, and capitalists. He continued that BJP believes in grabbing tribal land under its newly-coined word, development, and wants to snatch land, water, forests from them.

Rahul Gandhi, who has been repeatedly claiming that the Constitution was under constant attack from the BJP, echoed his charge, adding that the Congress-led INDIA bloc was making all efforts to protect the Constitution. He also vowed to remove the 50% cap on reservation.

He mentioned that if Congress is voted to power, they will raise the reservation of Scheduled Tribes to 28% from 26%; from 10% to 12% for the Scheduled Castes, and for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to 27% from 14%.

Reiterating on caste census, Gandhi mentioned the exercise was a must to identify the participation of tribals, Dalits, and OBCs in various institutions and wealth of the country. Alleging that PM Modi became silent when the issue of Caste Census was raised in the Parliament, the Congress MP claimed that he wants 90% of the people to get participation, while BJP wants the country to be run by a few people like Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Ambani-Adani.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a rally in Maharashtra today said that it was due to BJP efforts that an Adivasi woman Droupadi Murmu became the first Adivasi President of the country.

Jharkhand will hold elections on November 13 and 20. The counting of votes is scheduled for November 23.

The Congress on Friday said the outgoing Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud’s legacy will continue to be debated. Today was his last working day as the Chief Justice of India. Justice Chandrachud took over as the CJI on 8 November 2022.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said as the main petitioner in at least two very important matters, including a legislation being arbitrarily declared a money bill, he has been “deeply disappointed” with the CJI.

“Today is the last working day for the retiring Chief Justice of India. His legacy will continue to be debated, as indeed it should be. Personally, as the main petitioner in at least two very important matters, I have been deeply disappointed,” Ramesh said in a post on X.

The senior-most judge after the outgoing CJI, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, has been appointed as the 51st Chief Justice of India. He will take oath on 11 November, a day after incumbent Justice Chandrachud demits office on attaining the age of 65.

“First, the brave judge who in his Sept 2018 dissenting judgment called the Aadhar Bill’s passage as a Money Bill a “fraud on the Constitution”, never constituted a full Bench to examine the issues involved in the matter of legislation being arbitrarily declared by the Modi Govt. as a money bill under Art 110 of the Constitution just to avoid full debate. He had promised to do so after taking over as Chief Justice,” Ramesh said.

The Congress leader slammed the outgoing CJI over Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s “damaging” amendments to the RTI and said his challenge to the amendments is still pending for hearing and verdict for over four years now.

“Second, my challenge of the Modi government’s damaging amendments to the RTI has been awaiting hearing and verdict for over four years now,” he said.

With the ruckus in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly enter third day over a special status resolution, the Opposition BJP on Friday held a mock session in the lawns of the House after half of its members were marshalled out while the other half staged a walk out of the Assembly to protest against the abrogation of Article 370 resolution.

MLAs from the Opposition BJP assembled on the Assembly lawns and staged a mock assembly in which they described the House resolution on the restoration of special status as “illegal” and “unconstitutional”.

The saffron party leaders said the mock assembly was to protest against the National Conference (NC), which has “hijacked the House”.

“The House is hijacked by the NC. We won’t allow this to happen. A constitutional crisis has been brought about by the NC. They have violated the rules,” BJP MLA Balwant Singh Mankotia said.

Speaking to reporters, Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather said: ”The House ran smoothly today. Some tried to disrupt, but I acted within the law. Special status is part of Article 370 —whether you call it special status or 370, it’s the same.”

A brawl broke out today between BJP MLAs and assembly marshals after the Speaker directed the eviction of Opposition members who had stormed the well during a protest over the special status resolution.

As BJP MLA and Leader of the Opposition Sunil Sharma spoke about the resolution, Awami Ittehad Party leader and MLA Langate Sheikh Khursheed jumped into the well, displaying a banner that read, “Restore Articles 370 and 35A.” This infuriated the BJP members, who also jumped into the well, snatched the banner, and tore it into pieces.

The BJP members raised slogans such as “Balidaan huway jahan Mukherjee, woh Kashmir hamara hai,” while NC MLAs responded with, “Jis Kashmir ko khoon se seencha, woh Kashmir hamara hai.”

Twelve BJP MLAs were escorted out of the House after protesting against the resolution, while eleven party MLAs later walked out. There are currently 28 BJP MLAs in the House, which has a total strength of 88.

Following the passage of the resolution on Wednesday, the House witnessed significant uproar as BJP members protested vigorously, causing frequent disruptions to the proceedings. Eventually, the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.

JK Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary moved the resolution, stating, “This legislative assembly reaffirms the importance of special status and constitutional guarantees, which safeguard the identity, culture, and rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and expresses concern over their unilateral removal.”