Biggest thieves come during the day.. wearing a suit: Rahul Gandhi

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi took Lok Sabha by storm this afternoon attacking the Modi government for pushing forward the controversial land acquisition bill.

"It took us two years to get the land bill and the NDA govt murdered the bill in a few days. Nobody (in the government) cares about the poor or the farmers. They will just go and take away land. You have said there's no need for social impact assessment. We asked for one.. to know how it will impact farmers.. how they will be affected but you say there is no need for it," he said.

Rahul further said that the government's defence of projects being stalled was a lie. "The government is in a hurry to get this bill passed. Someone filed an RTI to find out how mnay projects are pending due to land issues. Your own Finance Ministry has said eight. Only eight. There is no shortage of land with the government then why do you want to grab more?"

The party leader also said that the government is keen on acquiring land in areas that are high in real estate. "Land is not acquired in Bundelkand or Rajasthan. They want places near cities.. near Noida. There's gold underyour feet and these people (govt) want to steal it from you."

"This government is anti-farmer, anti-poor. This is a 'suit-boot ki sarkar'. At one time leaders like Advaniji and Sushmaji were standing where I am right now and they said the same things I was saying. Now they are on the other side and I wonder what has changed."

Warning the government of not going ahead with the proposed legislation, Rahul said: "We will take to the streets if you go ahead with the new bill. This 'suit-boot ka kaam' will not go on. I was told that robbers come in at midnight, silently jump through the window... but the biggest thieves come during the day... and they come wearing a suit."





