New Delhi: Sensing an opportunity to reach out to farmers, Congress has decided to take on the government in a big way against the land ordinance and has constituted a three-member group to fine-tune its strategy on the issue. The party will also form a Parliament Strategy group to take up the issue more effectively in Parliament when the Budget session begins. Former Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and former Food Minister K V Thomas are members of the high-power group, which will try to reconcile the interests of various stakeholders while formulating the blueprint of Congress protest plan.
The three leaders met Congress President Sonia Gandhi yesterday to brief her on the deliberations held so far on the issue and on how the party has to go take among people. The group has already met and discussed the issue a number of times. “It has many dimensions. We will also consult Congress Chief Ministers. This issue requires deeper examina-tion. We have to also carry other political parties with us on the issue. We will confront the government with a consensus among the Opposition,” a senior party functionary said on the condition of anonymity. The Land Acquisition Act, a landmark legislation of UPA- II, was the brain-child of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and the party is accusing the Narendra Modi government of seeking to take the ‘heart and soul’ out of the legisla-tion through this Ordinance.
The Union Cabinet, chaired by PM Narendra Modi, had on Dec – 29 last year decided to amend the Act to bring under its purview 13 central legisla-tions, including those rela-ting to defence and national security, to provide higher compensation and rehabili-tation and resettlement benefits to farmers whose land is being acquired.Changes were made in consent clause and some other provisions, which led to a barrage of criticism from the Opposition. Amid the combined attack of oppo-sition parties on the issue, three senior Union Minis-ters– Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari met the President to explain the urgency in promulgating the ordinance on Land Acquisition before he gave his nod to it.
Congress sees an opportunity in this to paint the government as “anti-farmer” and rally around other parties especially those from the Left and socialist background The Rs 52,000 crore loan waiver before 2009 by the Congress-led UPA I government was considered a political masterstroke and is believed to have played a key role in the formation of UPA II government. There is also a view that the UPA II saw an increasing tilt towards corporates and the party lost out on its pro-poor and ‘Aam Aadmi’ image in the din of development.
Ever since Congress lost power in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, which saw its tally plummeting from 206 in 2009 to a mere 44, the party under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi has tried to reach out to the grassroots.
At a meeting of party general secretaries called by AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi on January 5, it was decided that the party will hold demonstrations in all states against the land bill and organise a ‘Chetna Abhiyan’ among farmers by February 15 informing them of the “dangers” of the Ordinance on the land bill.(PTI)