28.2.15

NaMo on the Land Bill


With the early enactment of the land acquisition bill looking uncertain, PM Narendra Modi reached out to his opponents for support with the promise that his government was ready to drop any provision in the bill that was considered to be anti-farmer. Modi also emphasized that passage of the land bill would be particularly beneficial for eastern UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, eastern Andhra Pradesh and the north-east--an assertion which was interpreted as a pitch aimed at regional parties like SP, JD(U), BJD, BSP and TRS who can help the government overcome its number handicap in Rajya Sabha. However, even as the PM struck a conciliatory note and argued that parties should rise above partisan considerations to take a stand, he was not apologetic about seeking to discard the law enacted under UPA. Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Lok Sabha that the land acquisition bill enacted by the UPA was flawed and needed to be changed. Citing protests by chief ministers of states ruled by different parties and the armed forces, he said the UPA law was hindering development and had held up defence facilities. Modi also said nobody should have the arrogance that what they had done was perfect and could not be bettered, in what was seen as a dig at Congress for passionately holding on to the law framed under UPA.
The PM said the land acquisition law was made with an eye on the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. “Land was being acquired under the 1894 law for 120 years and so it is not accidental that Congress woke up to the need to change it in 2013,“ he said. Modi further said while BJP had cooperated with the UPA government on the acquisition law despite knowing full well that it was motivated by electoral considerations, it became convinced of the need to change it in the light of the experience of states which complained that they could not find land for creating irrigation facilities and rural infrastructure.
On MGNREGA, Modi's tone oscillated between condescending and confrontational. He rebutted the allegation that his government wanted to dilute the rural jobs scheme, saying he had enough political intelligence to understand that he should keep the project going if only as a “monument of Congress's failure on the development front“. “Whatever else you may charge me with, you cannot accuse me of lacking political intelligence. And my political sense is that I should keep this project going just as evidence of your failure. That 60 years after independence people are having to dig ditches in order to subsist speaks a lot about you and I should keep this going with great fanfare,“ he said.

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