Great Tavleen Singh, in her trademark style, takes to task the jholawalas thronging again Jantar Mantar to blackmail the government. The piece must be read by everybody who opposes the Land Acquisition Bill of BJP:
“This is not just rubbish, but dangerous rubbish. As the sister of someone who, by Indian standards, is a rich farmer, may I put on record that the only time my brother has made any money is when he sells an acre or two. Most Indian farmers live on the edge of ruin because land reform has made agriculture unprofitable for most. And the reason why unemployment is the biggest problem in rural India is because agriculture has no capacity left to create jobs. So to try and make industry and infrastructure bad words, as the Finance Minister pointed out, is wrong.
Changes to this seriously defective law will not reduce the compensation that farmers get. They will reduce the decades that it could take to get 70 per cent of local residents to agree before land is acquired for roads, hospitals, schools or defence facilities. Incidentally, the change that the ordinance has forgotten to make is that this law interferes in private buying and selling of land as well. The middle class, urban protesters who currently occupy Jantar Mantar should tell farmers this and find out if they still support the law.
It cheered me to hear the Prime Minister remind us in his speech in the Lok Sabha last Friday that the Congress party won only 44 seats in the last election because the ‘aam aadmi’ noticed that the laws made on his behalf did not improve his life. Shame on the BJP for not performing its role as the main opposition party by not aggressively opposing the very bad laws the last government passed.” (from the article)
Read the whole article here.
