Upping the ante in its opposition to the “draconian” land acquisition legislation, the Shiv Sena – one of the constituents of the ruling NDA at the Centre — said on Thursday that it would not commit the sin of harming the interests of farmers merely for the sake of remaining in power.
In its staunch criticism of the land acquisition Bill introduced by the Modi dispensation in lok Sabha, the Shiv Sena said that if the Government, instead of reducing the huge debt burden of the farmers, was bent on usurping their land, then the fire of discontent would spread among the members of farming community.
“You should realise that farmers voted overwhelmingly to power at the Centre. Please do not betray their confidence,” the Sena’s official mouth-piece “Saamana” told its senior alliance partner in the State and at the Centre, BJP.
“We consider farmers as our mai-baap (mother and father). Come what may, we will not commit the sin of harming the interests of farmers merely for the sake of remaining in power," the “Saamana” editorial stated.
Alluding to the Opposition’s allegation that the Modi dispensation was going out of the way to benefit a handful of industrialists in the country. the Sena mouth-piece wondered if the Government had – in the name of ensuring industrial development – donned the role of a (real) estate agent.
“Given that the Government has undertaken any development during the past five years on land acquired from farmers under the old land acquisition law, the Government should have been thinking of returning the land acquired by it from farmers. Instead, through the new land acquisition Ordinance has ruined the farmers,” the “Saamana” stated.
lamenting that there was no time restriction on industrialists to undertake development on land acquired by them from farmers – through the Government, the “Saamana” editorial stated: “lack of such a restriction on industrialists concerned, makes them owners of the acquired land. Over and above, the Government has denied the farmers their right to seek justice. Suffice to say that the draconian land acquisition law seeks to threaten the very existence of farmers concerned. All this is happening at a time when the debt-trapped farmers are continuing to commit suicides”.
The hard-hitting editorial in “Saamana” comes a day after Sena president Uddhav Thackeray exhorted his party workers to “inform” farmers in the state about the “ill effects” of the land Acquisition Bill in the present format.