Stung by his Government’s failure to pass the ambitious land Acquisition Bill in the first half of the Budget Session of Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on offensive on Sunday and alleged that rumours about the Bill are part of the conspiracy to keep farmers poor.
In the sixth edition of his radio programme, Mann ki Baat, Modi insisted that the proposed Bill is an improved version of the previous land Act for the benefit of farmers and villages. Arguing that the Bill addresses “lacunae” in the previous Act which was “enacted in a hurry”, the PM, however, clarified that his Government was willing to accommodate any more suggestion in farmers’ interest.
While rejecting the allegations that the land Bill was aimed at benefiting the corporate and was anti-farmer, Modi underlined that it has the same compensation provisions as in the previous Bill enacted in 2013 by the then UPA Government.
He also said that the “No Consent” provision in the proposed new law applies to acquisitions by Government for Government or Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects and insisted that the same clause exists in the previous Act as well. “I am surprised that all kinds of misinformation is being spread,” Modi said while asking farmers not to be misled by “rumours and lies.”
The Government’s ambitious reform Bill is stuck due to resistance in the Rajya Sabha, and has come under severe attack from Opposition parties. Modi slammed the Opposition for trying to create confusion for “political reasons”.
“Our commitment is to ensure benefits for farmers through the land Acquisition Act. So many lies are being spread. It is my fervent appeal to farmers not to make decisions on the basis of these lies. Don’t be misled. You trust me, I will not betray your trust. Rumours are being spread that Modi is bringing the law to reduce compensation. I can’t even think of committing such a sin. Such misinformation is being carried out for political reasons. You have to guard against them,” Modi said.
During the 30-minute programme, Modi said the then Congress-led States like Maharashtra and Haryana too have favoured changes in the land Act of 2013 and clarified that if any State wants to go by the previous law, they are free to do so. Attacking the Congress party which has intensified its protest against the proposed land Bill, Modi said: “Those projecting themselves as sympathisers of farmers and undertaking protests had been using a 120-year-old law to acquire farm land for over 60-65 years after Independence and are now targeting my Government which is trying to improve the Act of 2013.”
“If anything is done in a hurry, some lacunae remain. May be the intent was not wrong but lacunae are there which need to be corrected. Our attempt is to address these lacunae to ensure that the law is beneficial for villagers, farmers, their future generations and to ensure they get electricity and water,” PM said.
He said the biggest among them was that 13 aspects of Government activity, like railways, national highway and mining, for which land is mostly acquired. These were kept out of the ambit of that law. It meant that compensation for acquiring land for these purposes would be paid on the basis of the 120-year-old law, he said, adding this has been addressed and hence farmers will get four times compensation for these too.
The Congress, meanwhile, rejected Modi’s defence of land Acquisition Bill. Senior Vongress leader Captain Amarinder Singh said: “Modi tried to defend the indefensible and miserably failed in his attempt…This was an exercise in futility as the Prime Minister failed to explain and convince the country as what was the need to replace the land Acquisition Act brought by the previous UPA Government,” Amarinder said. Referring to the Prime Minister’s claim that the previous UPA Government had brought the Act in hurry, the Congress leader remarked, “It is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.”