Congress leader Dr Udit Raj, while taking a dig at Uttar Pradesh’s action against illegal Ration Cardholders has made a derogatory meme against Adivasis (Tribals). In a recent tweet, he has mocked the primitive lifestyle of Adivasis and superimposed that with the poor nearly having any clothes to wear.
On Monday, the Chairman of Unorganized Workers & Employees Congress, Dr Udit Raj shared a meme on Twitter with a picture of a partly naked tribal with a caption, “Now this is the bare minimum requirement for getting a Ration card.” Raj tried to suggest that tribals who willingly live a primitive lifestyle being cut off from civilization are poor and that such extreme poverty would be essential to get a Ration card issued in UP.
With the meme, the Congress leader was seen criticising the UP Government’s action against illegal beneficiaries of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana releasing new eligibility criteria for holding a legal Ration card. According to the new rule, the monthly income of the family should be less than Rs 15,000. Also, the family should own less than 2 hectares of irrigated land to become eligible for getting affordable or free ration. Clearly, a family with a monthly income close to the given bracket does not live the way Raj pointed out.
Netizens slam Dr Udit Raj for stereotyping tribals through his meme
This angered Adivasi activists, Tribal workers and people from the community who flagged Raj’s characterization of tribals showing them in poor light. He faced a backlash for his tweet, after which some Twitter users went haywire.
A Twitter user also alleged that the Congress party has not sent any person from the Tribal communities to the Rajya Sabha for the last 36 years. Dr Udit Raj who styles himself as a voice for Dalits and the oppressed was himself caught casually stereotyping Adivasis while he played his politics on social media.
After the controversy erupted on Twitter and people started calling him out, Dr Udit Raj justified his tweet by saying that he did not mention that the person in his tweet was a tribal when he shared the image.
He tweeted, “Some tribal well-wishers are so foolish that in this picture they are seeing the reflection of tribal society. Are there not tribal ministers, officers, teachers, or traders? Will they keep comparing themselves to this? Do they not have the right to wear suit-boots? Such mindless tribals are the enemies of the society.” He further said that people are misquoting him to deviate from the topic of the debate. However, Dr Udit Raj could not dissociate himself from his tweet with many people calling him out over his recent tweet.
