March against land bill
Oppn parties march from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhavan
NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi led over a hundred leaders from 13 parties as a united Opposition marched from Parliament to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday in protest against the NDA government’s contentious land acquisition bill.
The legislation, a key reform measure that aims to make it easier for companies to purchase land, was passed in the Lok Sabha this month amid strong protest, but faces a stiffer test in the Rajya Sabha where the government is in a minority.
“We oppose the Modi government on the land bill and are determined to defeat its designs. We requested the President to intervene and ask the Modi government not to go ahead with the land bill in the Rajya Sabha,” Gandhi said after meeting Pranab Mukherjee.
The Congress, which supported the government in getting the insurance reforms cleared by the upper House, has refused to back the land bill, saying it will only support the 2013 version of the legislation that was passed by the UPA with a broad consensus of all parties, including the BJP.
“The Congress has adopted obstructionism both as a strategy and now almost as an ideology,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said.
“Amendment to the land bill is entirely in favour of rural India; it seeks to provide housing to the poor and to create infrastructure.”
In the wake of the stiff Opposition resistance to the bill, the cabinet committee on parliamentary affairs will meet on Wednesday morning to decide the future course of the legislation.
Sources say a section in the government wants to prorogue the House and re-promulgate the land bill.
Gandhi was flanked by senior party leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav and Derek O’Brien from the Trinamool Congress. Parties like the JD(S) and SP also joined the protests.
A delegation of 26 MPs met the President and submitted a memorandum, as former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh joined the lawmakers at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Many party leaders, however, said the presence of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi would have bolstered this show of Opposition unity.