The All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Rahul Gandhi today said he would back the Posco project if the steel major provided proper rehabilitation else he would throw his weight behind the agitating people.
“Posco project will bring development. We are not against development. If Posco provides proper rehabilitation, we will be with Posco. If it fails, we will be with the agitating people,” he said while addressing a gathering of tribals at Jharsuguda.
It may be noted that both the pro-Posco and the anti-Posco brigade had requested Gandhi to visit the Posco site. However, the visit to the project site did not figure in the itinerary of the Congress general secretary's two-day Orissa visit.
Gandhi also expressed sympathy with the tribals displaced by coal mining projects in Jharsuguda.
On the first day of his whirlwind two-day tour to Orissa, Gandhi addressed tribals at Jharsuguda, Baripada and Kotpada.
At Kotapad, he urged the tribal youth to plunge into active politics.
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“More tribal people should join active politics through which they will be able to solve their problems which they have been facing for ages,” Gandhi told the tribal youth at Kotapad in south Orissa’s Koraput district.
Senior Congress leaders and even the media persons were not allowed at the gathering at Kotapada. Gandhi is scheduled to visit Bhadrak and address a public meeting in Bhubaneswar on Thursday
The youths from the tribal dominated districts of Koraput, Nabarangapur, Malkanagiri and Kalahandi attended the interactive sessions of Gandhi.
“Gandhi wants more representatives of the tribal and dalit youths in politics for their empowerment,” said a student who participated in the interactive session.
During the interactive session with the tribal youths at Kotapada, the Congress leader said the tribal and dalits could make their voices heard, if more and more people from their communities participate in politics and public life. “This will not only empower them but also help to solve long standing problems being faced by the tribal people”, he told the youth.
He also urged them to join the Congress stating that only the century-old national party can give them opportunity to the tribal youth to build up their career in the politics.
The Congress provided a platform for common and ordinary youth to build up their career in politics even without any influential background, said Jagadish Tytler, the AICC general secretary in charge of the party's affairs in Orissa.