 "Sonia leads Cong charge against the NDA 'anti-farmer' Land Bill")
Congress President Sonia Gandhi visited villages across Haryana on Saturday meeting farmers affected by unseasonal rains. A day before she had toured villages in neighbouring Rajasthan, another Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state.
Gandhi has taken the lead in highlighting farmer issues and, in the process, putting the government on the mat on the land Bill. Since the issue resonates with the majority in rural India, the Congress is all going all out to expose the land Bill as anti-farmer.
In the midst of a turbulent budget session of Parliament Gandhi led the protest against the land Bill, marching down Rajpath with a united Opposition and presenting a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee against it.
The party had some time ago directed its regional units to generate awareness of how the National Democratic Alliance's land Bill had taken away the rights of landowners guaranteed by the United Progressive Alliance’s 2013 law.
“Gandhi is leading from the front on the land Bill issue. This has sent a positive message to the cadre and public,” admitted a senior Congress leader.
Hitting out at the Centre and the Haryana and Rajasthan governments, Gandhi said, “Farmers are our ‘annadatas’ (the ones who feed us). Today all of us are sad since our ‘annadatas’ are aggrieved.” She urged the governments to compensate farmers whose crops had been damaged by hail.
The Congress and regional parties, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, have stated they will oppose the NDA’s land bill tooth and nail. This has strengthened the Congress attack.
That the government is on a sticky wicket on farmers’ issues was evident in the Lok Sabha during a discussion on the current ‘agrarian crisis’. Several Members of Parliament cutting across party lines demanded a hike in minimum support prices for farm produce.
With prospects of exposing the Narendra Modi-led government as anti-people and anti-farmer, the Congress is not likely to give up the land bill soon. Gandhi has told the party’s rank and file that nothing short of a return to the UPA’s land law is acceptable.
Gandhi has taken the lead in highlighting farmer issues and, in the process, putting the government on the mat on the land Bill. Since the issue resonates with the majority in rural India, the Congress is all going all out to expose the land Bill as anti-farmer.
In the midst of a turbulent budget session of Parliament Gandhi led the protest against the land Bill, marching down Rajpath with a united Opposition and presenting a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee against it.
The party had some time ago directed its regional units to generate awareness of how the National Democratic Alliance's land Bill had taken away the rights of landowners guaranteed by the United Progressive Alliance’s 2013 law.
“Gandhi is leading from the front on the land Bill issue. This has sent a positive message to the cadre and public,” admitted a senior Congress leader.
Hitting out at the Centre and the Haryana and Rajasthan governments, Gandhi said, “Farmers are our ‘annadatas’ (the ones who feed us). Today all of us are sad since our ‘annadatas’ are aggrieved.” She urged the governments to compensate farmers whose crops had been damaged by hail.
The Congress and regional parties, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samajwadi Party, have stated they will oppose the NDA’s land bill tooth and nail. This has strengthened the Congress attack.
That the government is on a sticky wicket on farmers’ issues was evident in the Lok Sabha during a discussion on the current ‘agrarian crisis’. Several Members of Parliament cutting across party lines demanded a hike in minimum support prices for farm produce.
With prospects of exposing the Narendra Modi-led government as anti-people and anti-farmer, the Congress is not likely to give up the land bill soon. Gandhi has told the party’s rank and file that nothing short of a return to the UPA’s land law is acceptable.