The anti-corruption activist says the Centre has deceived farmers on land acquisition law

Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare has compared the Narendra Modi government to the British Raj, remarking that it had sold out to corporate interests.

“This government has deceived farmers on the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 by pandering to the so-called pro-development lobby. Acquiring fertile farmlands has become very easy by the Modi government’s passing of the ordinance on the pretext of ‘easing land acquisition’,” wrote the septuagenarian activist in his blog.

In an outburst against the Prime Minister, whom he had hitherto spared censure, Mr. Hazare said that farmers cast their votes induced by Mr. Modi’s motif of Achche Din, only to meet with disappointment.

“The violence and the tumult of the agitations in Singur (West Bengal) and Maan (Maharashtra) had compelled the government to introduce this Act. As per (the Act), 70 per cent of the farmers need to be in favour of land acquisition. This crucial clause has been deleted when the Modi government passed the ordinance,” he said in the post, remarking that the policy was “blatantly anti-democratic”.

Mr. Hazare further noted that provisions to conduct a social impact assessment of the acquired piece of land and the right to hold a public hearing prior to transfer of land was conveniently missing from the ordinance (prescribed in the Act’s Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency).

“If this is the new government’s ‘justice’, then how is it different from the authoritarianism of the British Raj?” asked Mr. Hazare, remarking that while the British had departed, there was no evidence of democracy in India.

Expressing grave concerns on the issue of food security, the 77-year-old activist observed that the 2013 Act had a provision for the security of farmlands which yielded two or more crops by prohibiting their transfer.

“The new ordinance passed by the BJP-led government will quash these safeguards in the original act. No wonder, farmer suicides continue unabated in the country,” he said.

Mr. Hazare’s salvo is seen as a prelude to his much-anticipated anti-corruption campaign that he plans to launch in New Delhi soon after the polls. This time, Mr. Hazare, bereft of his aides, Arwind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, would take on the BJP government over the land acquisition ordinance and press for the immediate implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill.