Mewar tribal villagers recall Sonia Gandhi’s visit to Dhanola with the then Prime Minister in 1985

Sonia Gandhi spent a long time with Kura Meena’s wife who was busy grinding grain in the manual stone mill (chakki). Sonia Gandhi, villagers remember, had tried her hand at spinning the slab and asked why villagers were grinding their own grain when flour mills could do the job. The grain was not wheat, but a cheaper local grain called Kagni Kuree that tribal villagers used to make chapati. The tribals could not afford to buy wheat.

Rajivji and Soniaji tasted the thick chapatis. The villagers were amused when the Prime Minister asked them why they weren’t eating wheat bread. When told by the villagers that they could not afford to buy wheat, Rajiv Ji held a discussion on the spot with Rajasthani government officials and ordered them to extend the public distribution system to the villages. around Dhanola..

Rajiv Ji took notes himself and upon his return to Delhi called a meeting of officials and made several announcements under tribal welfare measures.

“Rajivji has announced a slew of packages not only for the tribal villagers of Rajasthan but for all the tribals in the country. Many of the current tribal welfare programs were initiated by his government. The then Prime Minister visited Dhanola on August 8, 1985, reminded the villagers, and the day is marked in red in the village. “We learned of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi Ji’s visit to Udaipur to attend the Congress Chintan Shivir and we sent her an invitation, ‘For the Chintan Shivir, we sent them an invitation to revisit Dhanola Village,'” said Laxmi Narayan Pandya, a Gandhian and a former Zila Parishad Up Pramukh.