Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27

The Congress on Friday rejected any possibility of a debate on the controversial Land Bill of the BJP government asking PM Narendra Modi to restore the 2013 version of the law.

"The 2013 law is not a Congress law. It is a law of all parties, including the BJP, and was brought after extensive debate on all related issues. I urge you to rise about partisan politics and bring back the 2013 law which keeps farmers interests in mind," Congress president Sonia Gandhi wrote in a letter to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today, who had earlier through a communication to Sonia appealed it to support the Land Bill.

Sonia also slammed the BJP government's claims of the new law being “pro-farmer and pro-growth” saying: "Quite frankly, I was amazed at your letter's unabashed display of half-truths and misrepresentations. I should not, of course, be surprised because this is typical of your government when it runs out of logical and convincing arguments. In your letter, you have sought to justify the changes you propose in the land acquisition legislation on the grounds that it promotes the interest of villages, the poor, farmers and labourers, and that it facilitates irrigation, employment, industrial corridors and the defence industry. That is false. "

She also rejected Gadkari's offer to hold a debate on the bill and said the amendments the BJP had brought to the law have completely bypassed any debate or discussion.

"Your proposition for a debate after the government has unilaterally imposed an anti-farmer law is a mockery of the tradition of building bipartisan consensus before introducing laws of national importance," she said rejecting discussions on a day when the government has called a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs to propose prorogation of Rajya Sabha and re-promulgation of the land ordinance, which will lapse on April 5.

Sonia also rejected Gadkari's claims that stated the 2013 law brought by Congress-led UPA was “anti-growth and anti-national security”.

She said the 2013 law in fact addressed “all national concerns while protecting farmer's interests”.

Accusing the government of being “anti-farmer”, Sonia wrote: "The UPA’s and Congress party’s record on growth and national security issues is second to none. And, it is now being widely recognised that your government is blatantly anti-farmer and anti-poor, compromising the rights of the weaker sections of society to benefit a handful of private parties.

Sonia's stand on Land bill political grandstanding: Govt

Government on Friday dismissed Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s attack on the contentious amendments to the land acquisition bill as "political grandstanding".

Calling her act of defending the previous bill over which several Chief Ministers of her own party raise concerns as strange, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitaraman said: “I think it is only a political grandstanding rather than anything else…The Finance Minister (Arun Jaitley), during a discussion on the land bill, had quoted from the letter of the then Commerce Minister (Anand Sharma) saying that it might not encourage investments into this country," Sitharaman said. (With inputs from PTI)