Congress deputy leader in the lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday rejected the defence put forward by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for land Acquisition Bill being brought by the NDA Government. “Modi tried to defend the indefensible and miserably failed in his attempt,” he said. “This was an exercise in futility as the Prime Minister failed to explain and convince the country as what is the need to replace the land Acquisition Act brought by the previous UPA Government,” observed Capt Amarinder after Modi’s address to the farmers in his monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ programme on the All India Radio.
Referring to Modi’s claim that the UPA Government had brought the Act in a hurry, Capt Amarinder said, “The UPA Government had brought in the law after thorough deliberations with all stakeholders, including the BJP, which was in Opposition at that time.” “Rather, it is the other way round as the NDA Government had shown unabashed hurry to bring in new land acquisition law by not waiting for the parliamentary approval and instead adopting the Ordinance route,” he said, adding that it was wrong to say that the land acquisition law in its current form as brought in by the UPA Government hampered investments or development.
Ridiculing Modi for accusing the Congress for exploiting farmers under British’s land acquisition act, Capt Amarinder remarked, “Prime Minister has himself answered the question by referring to 120-year-old land acquisition act by British, which was highly exploitative and to which the NDA Government is trying to revert, after it had been repealed and replaced by the UPA Government.”
Capt Amarinder reminded Modi that 65-year period he had referred to in his speech during which the previous act was used by the successive Governments, included six years of BJP-led NDA rule also and why it had not occurred to the party at that time to change it. “Rather you are now trying to revert back to the British act yourself and undo what the UPA had done to safeguard the farmers’ interests,” he asserted.