NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi strongly condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s in the farmer’s rally here on Sunday for his attempts to acquire land of farmers and poors in rural India and gift them to his industrialist friends who had lent him huge party funds on elections eve.
Rahul said the land bill his UPA government had passed in September 2013 had provisions that no land can be acquired without consent of 80 per cent of land owners, and if works did not begin within five years of acquire, they will be returned the original land owners. The bill had many more provisions to protect the interests of the farmers. But the Modi government has removed all those in the new bill. Not only that but Modi has also made certain changes in the law so that even if farmers or land owners do not agree to acquisition of their land, they cannot go to court of law, the last resort of a citizen of India.
Rahul called Modi anti-farmer and anti-poor saying he is actually building land bank for big industrialists and business leaders as land will be the most sought after thing after 10-20 years. It is a conspiracy hatched jointly by the business tycoons and Modi in the name of development.
The Congress vice-president who was addressing a public rally for the first time after his 59-day leave, was determined to fight it out, saying whenever Modi government attempts to forcefully acquire land of farmers, he along with his party colleagues will stand there with people and fight against the injustice.
Sonia asked the present government why BJP wants changes in the land bill which they had praised lavishly in Parliament when it was passed in September 2013? Welfare schemes such as MGNREGA and PMRY of the UPA governments were also mentioned in her speech as she criticised Modi for cutting down on funds for the schemes which were aimed at providing food and employment to poor farmers and labourers in the countryside.
The Congress president cited massive decrease in the minimum support price of wheat, rice, cotton, potatoes and other crops in last 11 months after BJP came to power at Centre.
The farmers rally, hosted at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, was presided by senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh and addressed by former prime minister Manmohan Singh among others.
