By Japan K Pathak

So called enviornmentalists who oppose every development project possible, by putting forward fancy and whimsical environment related reasons are out again, this time against the Statue of Unity project. No need to say that such enviornmentalists are always found attached to some foreign funded NGOs backed by Christian Missionary and funding from abroad.

It is no secret that tribal areas across the world have been active playgrounds for religious conversion activities and some people don’t want anything else or anyone else to dominate, impact or influence the tribal areas. So Hindu saint with notable ground in Odisha Lakshmananda was murdered and Aseemanand in Dang was sent to prison for some bomb blast case. I don’t think attack on Statue of Unity project for so called environment reasons is any different from this. After all, Statue of Unity project will connect a sleepy tribal pocket of hilly east Gujarat to millions of visitors from across the world. It will make inroads. It will bring a whole lot of new developmental activities here. That’s what masters of religious conversions would not like.

In fact the entire plot of Naxal and Maoist activities in tribal areas of India is centered around the idea that government must not be allowed to step inside the tribal areas. Religious conversion process then become quite easier. So Naxals would blast road construction activities, school buildings etc.

The great Narendra Modi was very sharp as Chief Minister. He separated tribal parts of the state and created new districts.

Once you have a district containing only tribal pockets, you can inject government and government schemes to it more efficiently. You can set up district police headquarters, district civil hospital and many other facilities to compete and neutralize the Church activities and therefore religious conversions in long run.

Take an example of Vadodara district. A beautiful city of Vadodara is its capital, but kilometers away, tribal pocket of Chhota Udepur was also a part of the same district. Imagine, how often district collector of Vadodara would leave Vadodara city and travel to Chhota Udepur? How much time he would spend for the issues related to Chhota Udepur pocket? How much care and focus Chhota Udepur would receive compared to the core part of the district which was Vadodara. So, Modi separated Chhota Udepur from Vadoara and made small sleepy tribal dominated belt of Chhota Udepur as separate district. Implementation of tribal welfare schemes, strategic appointment of Collector and district police chief, reaching out to the last mile person through government machinery became easier with formation of tribal specific district. Similarly Tapi, Arvalli and other tribal districts were formed. This could be done much earlier, but then we didn’t have someone visionary at helm.

Coming back to the Statue of Unity issue, those who think, so called environmentalists crusading against the Statue of Unity project are actually environmentalists, actually miss a point. Masters of religious conversions don’t want the government, and the people other than them to step inside the tribal pockets. So sugar factories, industrial units, tourism project, nuclear plant – every kind of entity will be defamed, delayed, challenged, opposed and halted through writ petitions, planted narratives in the media, agitations, environmental tribunal and else.

In regard to the Statue of Unity project, first there was an attempt to set up a small place of worship (which can be built overnight) on Sadhu Tekri and circulation of its photograph in media with narrative that in order to construct the Statue of Unity, government wanted to demolish a place of worship). As soon as the Narendra Modi government came to know about this, State Reserve Police was stationed at Sadhu Tekri. Then we saw emergence of 70 Gam Adivasi Sangathan demanding removal of 70 villages from the list of the Kevadiya Area Development Authority, but it was cooled down by local administration. Then, as always there was a writ petition against the project which was rejected by Gujarat High Court, and thankfully no stay order was given in the meantime. Then there was caste related narrative by a Church funded ‘NGO’ that why Patel’s statue and why not Ambedkar’s? Then there was this environment related narrative propelled by so called activists who are not Phd in environment protection or not known for any kind of positive contributory activity such as mass tree plantation.

Thankfully, we have government in centre and the state which is aware about the roots of this menace and refuses to become party(which is pleasingly in contradiction with the previous government in centre).

– DeshGujarat