Police cleared the protest site on July 19

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the Narendra Modi government fears “both truth and non-violent resistance”, days after police dispersed tribal protests against the Ken-Betwa river linking project in BJP-led Madhya Pradesh.“The tribal brothers and sisters of Madhya Pradesh had sat on a water satyagraha and hunger strike because their land was taken away for the Ken-Betwa project, but they received neither fair compensation nor dignified rehabilitation,” the Lok Sabha leader of opposition wrote on X.

Rahul Gandhi X post

Calling tribals the country’s “original owners”, Rahul Gandhi asserted that the first right over water, forests and land “belongs to them alone.”“And their ‘satyagraha’ is because that very right is being snatched from them today. In their unique way, their demand is simply this: provide a proper means of livelihood—or else life is no different from a funeral pyre. But even this is unacceptable to the BJP government. Instead of listening to them, their peaceful protest is being crushed with police force,” the Raebareli MP added.The former Congress chief expressed solidarity with the protesting tribal communities and asserted that his party would ensure justice, including fair compensation and proper rehabilitation for them.Rahul Gandhi also shared a video clip highlighting the protests in Madhya Pradesh.On July 19, police in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district removed protesters from the site, bringing their 15-day agitation to an end.The Rs 44,605-crore Ken-Betwa Link Project is India’s first river-linking project under the National Perspective Plan. It aims to irrigate 1.062 million hectares of land, provide drinking water to around 6.2 million people, and generate hydropower in the drought-prone Bundelkhand region spanning Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.(With PTI inputs)