Headlines
Opposition determined to defeat land bill: Sonia
New Delhi, March 17
The opposition is
determined to defeat the government's controversial land acquisition
bill, Congress president Sonia Gandhi declared on Tuesday after leading
leaders of 14 political parties in a protest march to the Rashtrapati
Bhavan.
In the first major display of opposition unity after the
2014 Lok Sabha election, Gandhi told the media that they had urged
President Pranab Mukherjee not to let the government go ahead with the
bill, saying it would badly hurt the interests of farmers.
Gandhi
said that "democratic, secular and forward looking forces are
determined to defeat the (Narendra) Modi government's designs" to
promote corporate interests at the cost of farmers by taking away their
land.
The protest that Gandhi led drew members of 14 political
parties, including her own Congress, Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal-United,
Janata Dal-Secular, the DMK, the Communists, Trinamool Congress and
Nationalist Congress Party.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh also joined the protest.
JD-U
leader Sharad Yadav said Tuesday's protest had brought together all the
opposition forces that had got scattered since the Lok Sabha election
catapulted the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party to power.
"This is
a land of farmers. It is the farmers who have made this country
self-sufficient in food. To snatch their land is a sin," he said.
"This is the beginning of a major battle that will be waged in every nook and corner of the country," he said.
The
MPs converged at the Gandhi statue in the parliament complex from where
they launched the march, raising slogans like "Kisan Virodhi, Narendra
Modi (or anti-farmer Narendra Modi)".
"This is a historic march.
All parties are in it together and we hope the Modi government is
watching this march," Trinamool leader Derek O'Brien told reporters.
The
opposition parties submitted to the president a memorandum against the
Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) bill, 2015.
Referring
to the bill that introduces amendments to the existing act, passed by
the UPA government in 2013, Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia said: "The
clauses which we, the Congress, had inserted for the farmers' benefit
have been taken out."
The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha
earlier this month amid stiff protest. However, the Modi government is
yet to present it in the Rajya Sabha, where it lacks a majority.