Sonia Gandhi says no to Land Bill debate ;

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi says party cannot support any law which hurts farmers and has asked the Centre to bring back UPA's land Bill. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday rejected Union minister Nitin Gadkari's suggestion of an open debate on the controversial land ordinance and accused the NDA government of pushing the legislation to please the corporate.
Hailing farmers as the backbone of the country, Gandhi said Congress cannot support any law which hurts farmers, and asked the Modi government to bring back UPA's land Bill in totality.
The Congress is opposed to the ordinance, saying it negates an earlier law passed during the previous UPA in 2013 which was supported by all parties. "Land ordinance bypasses debates and discussion. Proposition for a post facto debate after unilateral imposition of anti-farmer law is a mockery of building partisan consensus," Gandhi said in her reply to Gadkari's letter. "The 2013 law was enacted with complete political unanimity, including consent of the BJP. Why dilute the soul and spirit of this unanimity by way of an ordinance," Gandhi asked.
Last week, Gadkari had written to Gandhi, leaders of other Opposition parties and social activist Anna Hazare inviting them to an open debate on the issue while asserting that the Bill was very much in farmers' interest.
The ordinance is set to lapse on April 5 and may have to be re-promulgated. Ahead of that the Congress president minced no words in slamming the Modi government for its "unabashed display of half truths". Gandhi also described the ordinance as a "mockery of farmer's pain."
Gandhi, who led an Opposition march to President Pranab Mukherjee, criticised the government for branding those who were championing the cause of distressed farmers as anti-national and accused the NDA of "bending backwards to favour select industrialists".
The fundamental difference between the Congress and the BJP is in understanding the plight of farmers and loss of livelihood through land acquisition without safeguards. "Being pro-farmer is not being antigrowth," Gandhi said. She charged that the ordinance, which does away with the clause that seeks consent of 80 per cent farmers before their land is taken away, is a "breach of trust" with the farming community.
The Congress chief further charged that the amendment brought in by the government that land beyond 1 km on either side of railway track or highway will not be acquired, is to "benefit private vested interests."
She also said that the provision which does away with the clause that land needs to be returned in case a project does not take off in five years is like "compromising the interests of the farmers."