Despite the passage of the controversial land bill in the Lok Sabha, veteran anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare kept up a combative tone over the allegedly ‘anti-farmer’ legislation, remarking that a “second freedom struggle” would erupt if the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha as well.
In his latest blogpost, the septuagenarian said that he would be sending a letter to the Centre in which he would give his suggestions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the perceived “injustices to farmers in the land bill”. The Bill was adopted by the Lok Sabha earlier in the week and will soon face a floor test in the Upper House.
“A second freedom struggle would erupt if this Bill, in its current version, gets the approval of both Houses of Parliament. The people would then have to show that the ‘People’s Parliament’ is supreme in this country,” wrote Mr. Hazare, who is himself planning to kickstart his elaborate ‘Kisan Sangharsh Yatra” in protest against the Bill on March 30.
Dubbing the Bill as a “tendentious” piece of legislation that only catered to the interests of industrial lobby groups, Mr. Hazare said that the government ought to have carried out a ground mapping survey of the land.
Censuring the amended Land Bill, Mr. Hazare reiterated that fertile land should be classified by the Centre as such and prohibited for industrial use.
“The Bill permits acquisition of even that lands on which two or three crops can be cultivated. How can the Centre say it has taken the interests of farmers into consideration?” wrote Mr. Hazare, suggesting that the government instead must take the farmers’ land on lease.
Lambasting Mr. Modi, the 77-year-old activist said despite the Prime Minister having been born in Mahatma Gandhi’s land and having experienced hard times as a tea vendor, it was astonishing why Mr. Modi failed to absorb Gandhi’s essential wisdom on the importance of preservation of the agrarian way of life in India.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hazare’s three-month padayatra (foot march) is already bedeviled with fractiousness even before its commencement after the All India Farm Policy Coordination Committee (AIFPCC) — a group of farmers’ associations in the country — announced that it would distance itself from the proposed agitation.
The decision was taken after an AIFPCC meeting which was held concurrently with Mr. Hazare’s conference in Wardha district.
According to the AIFPCC convention which was attended by several prominent leaders and activists including Medha Patkar and Yogendra Yadav, the body decided to distance itself as Mr. Hazare’s vision was restricted only to land-owning farmers and was not a holistic campaign addressing farmer issues.
Mr. Hazare had earlier rebuffed Mr. Yadav’s participation in his upcoming agitation on grounds that no political affiliation was permitted in his campaign.
