‘Leadership rift setback for tribal movement’

Margao: Speaker of the Goa legislative assembly and a leader of the tribal community in the state, Ramesh Tawadkar, has acknowledged that the tribal movement in the state has suffered a setback primarily owing to a rift among the leadership of their associations.
“It’s true that groupism among the tribal community has led to the tribal movement losing its momentum,” Tawadkar said in a conversation with TOI. “The tendency of one upmanship among some leaders has led to this situation. Our strength lies in the coming together of the tribal communities and working as one.”
While the differences among the tribal leaders have come to the fore of late, this is the first time that a prominent leader of the tribes has candidly admitted to the rift.
Tawadkar recently, in his capacity as the chairman of Adarsh Yuva Sangh, a social and cultural organisation, successfully organised the 22nd edition of Lokotsav, an adivasi festival, in his home town, Amone, Poinguinim.
It was under the banner of the United Tribals Associations Alliance (UTAA) that the tribal people had launched an agitation demanding their rights. It had resulted in the infamous agitation of 2011 at Balli, which claimed two tribal lives. Tawadkar was among those who led the agitation from the front.
Asked to comment on the criticism that several leaders who had led the tribal movement in the past had now come to hold important positions in the government or had gotten government jobs, which led to the weakening of the tribal movement, Tawadkar said that what was unfortunate was the incitement by some tribal leaders to agitate against him.
“I was the tribal MLA in the opposition when the UTAA agitation happened. When BJP formed the government in 2012 and I became the tribal welfare minister, there was a growing expectation among our community that all benefits should be accrued to the scheduled tribes. But it doesn’t work that way in the government. When they speak in terms of agitating against me, the movement loses its meaning. I remained out of the government after 2017, the movement suffered, and the rift is now visible,” Tawadkar said.
The Canacona MLA stressed that the tribal movement beginning from the Gakuved agitation — demanding that Gawda, Kunbi, Velips and Dhangars be included in the scheduled tribes category — was championed by him from Canacona. While most of the demands of UTAA have been fulfilled, Tawadkar sounded optimistic that the demand for 12% reservation of assembly seats would be met by the 2027 assembly election.
“The biggest challenge now,” Tawadkar said, “is giving back to the tribal community what they have been deprived of. There are many schemes on offer through the tribal subplans in every government department. However, on account of bureaucratic hurdles, the schemes fail to percolate down to the deserving people. Implementation has now begun, and we are closely monitoring it.”