Rahul lashes out at UP Govt; lays importance on farmers

Aligarh: Ahead of next year’s Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, a Congress maha-panchayat over land acquisition today witnessed Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) bashing amid Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s assurance that the farmers views would be considered before the new Land Acquisition Bill is tabled in the Lok Sabha.Mr Gandhi, after hearing a number of farmer leaders from different parts of Uttar Pradesh, said that the UPA government at the Centre was a government of ”aam admi” and thus the new bill on the land acquisition would include all the recommendations of the farmers.
The maha-panchayat, which was claimed by the Congress to be non-political, transformed into an election campaign for the party as the farmers appealed to the people to vote for the Congress.
A separate dais made for the non-political farmers turned out to be a platform for poll campaign, besides some farmers even spoke on the ‘dotted’ lines.
The Congress leaders and the farmers claimed that the padyatra of Rahul Gandhi was similar like Dandi March of Mahatma Gandhi and claimed that now the youth leader has become the new farmer leader of the country.
Hitting hard at the opposition political parties, particularly the BSP and the BJP for terming his padyatra as ‘Nautanki’ (Drama), the Congress leader said,” the four days of padyatra was the biggest lesson of my life.
”Every politician should go before the people to hear their grievances, but in UP the farmers are being greeted with bullets when they raise their genuine demands, besides none of the politicians are ready to go before them,” he stated.
”During the past four days of my padyatra, I held several small meetings and interacted with the farmers. These farmers are not opposed to development or acquisition of their land, but they want adequate price of their land and be respected as a owner of the land,” Mr Gandhi said.