New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi, who returned from a 56-day sabbatical two day’s back, on Saturday interacted with a delegation of farmers from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. The Congress vice president is holding intensive consultations with farmers today as he is expected to lead the Congress’ charge on the land bill issue against the government with the Kisan rally on Sunday.
The meeting has been called to chalk out party’s strategy against land acquisition bill before Parliament resumes next week. This meeting comes a day before the Congress rally on Sunday organised to galvanise protests.
The delegation includes farmers from Bhatta Parsaul village from where Rahul had launched a ‘padyatra’ in 2011 against forcible land acquisition of farmers, a protest that had culminated in passage of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
The Congress vice-president will visit his parliamentary constituency Amethi after the rally. Sunday’s rally is being seen as a sort of a comeback announcement by Rahul and a show of strength by the party against the bill it calls “anti-farmer”.
“Tomorrow’s rally would be a historic rally. Lakhs of farmers from across the country will get together in Delhi and we want to expose this BJP government for the way farmers have been duped only to pay back favours of some people. The BJP is ‘conspiring’ to take over the land of small farmers,” Pilot said.
The delegation included farmers from Bhatta Parsaul village from where Rahul had launched a “padyatra” in 2011 against forcible land acquisition of farmers, a protest that had culminated in passage of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
The Congress vice-president arrived in New Delhi yesterday after a two-month long break from the political scene. His whereabouts were a matter of much speculation and it is still not known where he spent his holidays. The Congress had, however, defended his absence and said that the 44-year-old leader wanted time off for introspection after a series of electoral drubbings.
Bureau Report
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