Fighting off criticism against the Land Acquisition Bill, Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar on Friday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is doing everything for farmers and everywhere farmers were the ones giving it the mandate.
"Everywhere you will find it is the farmers, who have given us the mandate. We have been doing everything for the farmers," claimed Javadekar during an interaction with media about ongoing discussions in the meeting of the BJP's national executive here.
"The BJP is a friend of farmers, it is a party of farmers," he added.
Taking a dig at the Congress, Javadekar said the Congress raised the interests of farmers at the WTO and agreed that there would be no minimum support price system from 2016, whereas the BJP fought for the farmers in the WTO.
"At WTO, the Congress had raised the farmers' interest and had agreed that from 2016 there will not be minimum support price system," Javadekar said.
Also Read
"We fought in WTO. We were even ready to get isolated, but we said we will stand by our farmers and now India has got the right for Minimum Support Price and farmers will have minimum support price," he added.
The Land Acquisition Bill, with nine amendments, was passed in Lok Sabha last month. However, it could not be passed in the Rajya Sabha where Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP is in minority.
The land acquisition ordinance, which was introduced in December last, will lapse on April 05 because it could not be converted into a law by the Parliament.
