Nangla Bhattauna: Ramping up pressure on the Mayawati-led government, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday took his campaign against forced land acquisition to the farmer’s doorstep, walking from village to village and stressing at each stop that he was with them in their fight.
“I am listening to you, I am with you,” the Congress general secretary told a gathering in this village in the lucrative Greater Noida belt, about 60 km from the Indian capital, on day one of a proposed foot march that will end in Aligarh on July 9 with a farmers’ rally.
Accompanied by about 60 state policemen, a sniffer dog squad, fire brigade and ambulance vehicles, besides the elite Special Protection Group (SPG), the Rahul cavalcade walked 12 km from the twin villages of Bhatta Parsaul — the epicentre of a farmers’ agitation against land acquisition by the state government.
Gandhi had begun the day early, surprising state authorities by reaching Bhatta Parsaul at 6 am despite being denied permission to hold a rally there. The venue of the rally was then shifted to Aligarh.
After interacting with villagers there, he began the foot march (padyatra) and reached Nangla Bhattauna by noon.
“I have come to you. I am listening to you. I am with you,” Gandhi, 41, told the gathering of men, women and children, described as a ‘kisan panchayat’ by his aides.
He interacted with the villagers for 45 minutes.
“I went to Bhatta Parsaul to know the truth. Sitting in Delhi, I cannot know the truth,” Gandhi said. “I know the truth about the situation here. You also know the truth.”
Four people, including two policemen, were killed in violence in Bhatta Parsaul in May.
“I have started this yatra. I have started it from Bhatta and will go to all villages and see what is happening to ascertain your views on the new land acquisition policy of the Uttar Pradesh government,” the Congress MP said.
Rahul’s visit to the area, a direct challenge to the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh ahead of elections next year, comes about two months after he was detained in Bhatta Parsaul immediately after the police violence in May. (IANS)
Drama, says BSP, BJP
Lucknow: Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi began his foot march from Bhatta-Parsaul in Greater Noida on Tuesday, a move which the BSP and the BJP termed as drama, intended to divert attention from the failures of the UPA-II government at the Centre.
The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party have termed the padyatra a mere ‘political drama’ to divert the attention of the people from the failures of the Congress led-UPA government at the Centre.
BSP state president and UP Minister Swami Prasad Maurya in a statement said it was just a nautanki (drama).
”Such padyatra would not yield any result for the Congress and the party would meet the same fate in UP as it witnessed in Bihar during the last Assembly elections,” Former BJP national president Rajnath Singh said. (UNI)