During his exposition on the Land Bill today, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi took the NDA government head-on in the parliament.
Gandhi said that it took the UPA government two years to come up with a draft of the proposed bill, but it took the NDA government no time in dropping that version.
Calling the government anti-poor, he said that though there is plenty of land available for projects, the government insists on acquiring farming lands.
“The government is in a hurry to pass this bill, so we asked your Finance Ministry how many projects are pending due to land? Your Finance Ministry said that only eight out of 100 projects are pending.”
– Rahul Gandhi, Congress Vice President
He further added that the government rejected the UPA’s recommendation of returning an acquired piece of land to its farmer, in the event of it lying unused for 5 years.
“Not just that,” Gandhi said, “the government did not feel the need for a social impact assessment that the UPA had recommended”. He made it clear that the Congress will leave no stone unturned in opposing this bill. Quite dramatically put, Gandhi declared that if if they fail to stop them in Parliament, this “suit-boot” government will be met with opposition on the streets — “Sadak pe jaake rokenge, suit-boot ka kaam chalne nahin denge”
The denouement to Gandhi’s diatribe entailed him calling the NDA thieves. “I’ve heard about thieves entering the house from all possible directions, but here they are coming on the streets and stealing the farmers’ land”, he said.
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