July 12, 2011 1:17:38 AM
Amitabh Shukla | Chandigarh
Rahul Gandhi hailing Haryana’s land acquisition policy during his much publicised Padyatra in western UP has ruffled quite a few feathers in the state.
His statement praising the state government has not gone down well with farmers who have been sitting on dharna in the state against land acquisition. Several of them do not want to cede even an inch of productive agricultural land for industrial development.
The Congress General Secretary’s praise of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s policy, has also upset the applecart of a few senior Congress leaders of the state who have been quite vocal against land acquisition for industrial projects.
During his protest march in BSP-ruled UP, Gandhi had cited the example of Congress-ruled Haryana, saying “farmers were happy in Haryana and there are no problems there…In Haryana there were no dharnas either as the farmers were paid market rates for their land acquired…”
In fact, farmers of Panjokhra village have been sitting on a fast in front of civil secretariat at Ambala city for last almost two months to protest against the acquisition of their 1852 acres of land for setting up IMT.
“Congress suffers from selective amnesia. As Rahul Gandhi has not visited Haryana recently, he is perhaps not aware of the plight of the farmers here who do not want to sell their land to the government at any cost,” said a Congress leader, who did not want to be named.
Union Minister Shelja has openly voiced her concern against land acquisition in her constituency Ambala for an
After being divested of the crucial Finance Department, Yadav, a six-time MLA said, “I still stand by my earlier objections against the land acquisition policy. Fertile land of the farmers should not be acquired for industrial projects and developed plot should be given to the farmers whose land has been acquired for such projects.”
Interestingly, even though Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Gandhi-Nehru family, has been praising Hooda, his party’s Yadav has been consistent in his criticism against the land acquisition policy. In fact, he has written letters to Hooda asking him to stop land acquisition of more than 450 acres of productive
Ironically, all Congress leaders in the state, who are opposed to Hooda in the factional politics of the Congress here, have targeted him only on the issue of land acquisition. Apart from Yadav and the Union Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja, Congress General Secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh too has expressed such sentiments in the past. Selja has written to party President Sonia Gandhi seeking her intervention on the issue.
Hooda, however, defends land acquisitions for industrial purposes. “Industrial development is the only alternative at a time when the land holding of the people is getting depleted and the youth of the State are finding it hard to get employment amid the scarcity of government jobs,” he told a rally in Ambala last month, the constituency of his bitter critic Selja.
After Gandhi hitting out at UP Chief Minister Mayawati and praising Hooda during his padyatra, those opposed to Hooda’s land acquisition policy in the Congress have fallen silent. They preferred not to respond to the issue this time.
The state BJP, however, has hit out at the Congress and Gandhi. State party President Krishan Pal Gurjar said that neither Gandhi nor the central Congress leaders have shown any concern even as the farmers have been agitating in different parts of the state for over a year against land acquisition. Haryana Janhit Congress chief Kuldeep Bishnoi has also criticised Gandhi for “double standards” and ignoring the plight of farmers in Haryana and campaigning only in Uttar Pradesh for political reasons and not concern for the farmers.
http://dailypioneer.com/352568/Cong-Opp-lampoon-Rahul-praise-for-Hooda.html
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