Union Minister of State for Environment Ashwini Kumar Choubey Sunday slammed former Congress president Rahul Gandhi's remarks on new forest conservation rules as unfortunate and misleading.
Choubey, who was here to review the BJP's preparedness for the Lok Sabha elections, told reporters, "The tweet which Rahul (Gandhi) ji has put out, I don't think he should have made that misleading point, and thereby try to mislead the people. This is extremely unfortunate. The Centre will not snatch any forest land, and even after snatching it, where will we go?"
Earlier in the day, the Congress accused the Narendra Modi government of abdicating its responsibility towards protecting tribal rights and alleged that the new forest conservation rules will disempower crores of "adivasis" and others living in forest areas.
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In a tweet, Gandhi said, "'Modi-Mitr' Sarkar at its crony best! For 'ease of snatching' forest land, the BJP government has come up with new FC Rules, 2022 diluting UPA's Forest Rights Act, 2006."
"Congress stands strongly with our Adivasi brothers and sisters in their fight to protect 'Jal, Jungle and Zameen'," he added.
On the controversy over the poster of documentary "Kaali" Choubey, who also holds the consumer affairs, food and public distribution portfolio, said, "Bhagwati, Lakshmi and Saraswati are symbols of 'matri-shakti' (women power) among the followers of 'sanatan dharma'. Their insult is our insult, and we will not tolerate this."
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The minister's comments came amid a row over the controversial depiction of the goddess in a poster by a Canadian filmmaker of Indian origin, which has drawn angry reaction from BJP leaders and Hindu groups.
(With PTI Inputs)
