AAP joins battle against Land bill

New Delhi: Following the footsteps of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday upped its ante against the Centre’s “anti-farmers” Land Acquisition Bill.

Addressing the rally, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal attacked the Narendra Modi-led government and said: “A year ago, the people of India voted for the Modi government with a lot of hope and trust. What has happened in one year is that farmers feel the Narendra Modi government is against them.”

Lashing out at the Centre, Kejriwal said, “Why was there a need for an ordinance on the land bill? Ordinances are meant for emergencies. What was the emergency?”

Taking a dig at the Modi government, Kejriwal said, “This ordinance has been brought in for super ameer (rich) people.”

In his speech, Kejriwal dared the government to let the country know the names of the projects stalled so that the country supports the project.

“We need to ask farmers why they want to sell their land,” he said.  Kejriwal also said that farmers are suffering due to unseasonal rain.

Praising his government’s effort Kejriwal said, “AAP government is the only government which has compensated the farmers at the rate of Rs 50,000 per hectare.”

Calling farmers to unite against the Centre Government to demand their need of the hour is that all the farmers of the nation should come together. They should demand fair compensation.

“AAP will unite the farmers of India on 3 issues – land will not be taken without consent, 50% profit and adequate compensation for farmers,” he said.

As the rally was picking up momentum, a farmer from Rajasthan committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree during the event.

The man, identified as Gajender Singh Rajput from Rajasthan’s Dausa district, left a suicide note. He was rushed to hospital, where he was declared dead.

After trying to draw attention to himself, the man climbed the tree and threatened to hang himself, as AAP leaders and others climbed after him urging him to come down.

He was seen hanging precariously from the tree and hundreds of people gathered at the Jantar Mantar to protest against the Centre’s land acquisition bill, watched in shock and horror as the man fell.

Kejriwal visited the hospital after his speech. “I am sad that he climbed the tree in front of us but nobody tried to stop him,” Kejriwal said.

Reportedly, farmers from Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana, Odisha, the Bundelkhand and Poorvanchal belt of Uttar Pradesh participated in the rally to protest against the Bill.

The land acquisition bill by the Narendra Modi government has faced a lot of attack by the Opposition.

Earlier, Congress VP Rahul Gandhi had called the government ‘suit boot ki sarkar’ over the land bill issue in the Lok Sabha and had alleged that the government was only bothered about industrialists and did not care about farmers.

The government, on the other hand, has maintained that the land bill was not anti-farmer and the Opposition was only attacking the bill because it had run out of issues over which it could oppose the government.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu had alleged Congress is continuously trying to spread falsehood as truth and had asked party MPs to counter it aggressively.