Land ordinance to be biggest trigger for PM Modi's downfall: Congress

Asserting that the Narendra Modi-led central government cannot displease majority population of the farmers to please a handful of corporates, J&K Congress on Tuesday said the land ordinance will prove to be the biggest trigger for the prime minister's down fall.

"Land ordinance will be the biggest trigger for Modi's downfall. You cannot displease 67 per cent of the population who are farmers to please a handful of corporates who PM is beholden to," Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader and former minister Nawang Rigzin Jora said on Tuesday.

Jora said, "the corporate houses, some of whom own big media houses, helped catapult Modi in the Prime Minister's chair 10 months ago. The media blitzkrieg and the lavish campaign that BJP launched were all thanks to these corporate friends."

"Since it is pay back time, prime minister cannot but bring the land ordinances - one after another. His friends are demanding their pound of flesh. Otherwise, how does one explain the need for ordinance without operationalising the 2013 Right to Fair Compensation & Rehabilitation Act", he said.

Jora said this Act, which was the collective effort of all the political parties, was enacted after thorough discussion in the parliament.

"The amendments proposed by BJP were accepted; the bill went through all the legislative processes including scrutiny and due diligence of the select committee. Then, what necessitated an ordinance," he asked.

"Doing away with the 80% consent clause, doing away with the social impact assessment clause, eschewing the land back to the farmers in case work doesn't start, masquerading commercial hospitals and educational institution in the social infrastructure; doing away with punitive measures for officials acts of omission and commission many other similar key features of the UPA Act cannot but be seen as favouring the corporates".

The PM forgets that it was mainly the farmers who put him in the hot seat and it will be the same farmers to oust him from the seat come 2019, said Jora.

"For, land is not merely the farmers livelihood, it is their life. Past events in Sangur in West Bengal proves what happens when you invite the wrath of the farmers," Jora said and added, "the perception has already gone out unambiguously that Modi government is anti-farmer, anti-poor. The coming days will reinforce this perception even more strongly".

"Prime Minister Modi may manage to bulldoze the ordinance as a bill through a joint session of the parliament, but the impact this will have on the farmers of the country will be unimaginable" says Jora.

The former minister said, "this is a pivot on which the Congress party and the opposition will hang on to in the coming elections building up a tempo to 2019 when this government will be unseated".

CLP leader added that the success of the Kisan Khet Mazdoor Rally followed by the all-out attack by Rahul Gandhi in the parliament is a clear indication that the Congress party will not let go of this opportunity and will fight for the farmers of the country as never before.

"This is also a singular issue on which all the Opposition parties are going to unite. Sitaram Yechury has already given indication that his first task after assuming the important charge (of CPI-M chief) would be to ensure opposition unity on the land bill".

Jora said that the merger of the various Janta Dal splinters groups into one fighting entity as well as the reluctance of some of the NDA alliance partners, provides the perfect platform for the Congress party to take the lead.
Sonia Gandhi has already led an all party delegation to the President clearly signalling the Congress parties' willingness to go for all out, he said, adding that the Congress, therefore, is in a "win-win situation."

"On the other hand Prime Minister Modi loses either way - whether he passes the bill through a joint session or withdraws the ordinance or amends it to incorporate all the salient features of the 2013 Act of the UPA", he said.

Jora strongly feels the long sabbatical that Rahul Gandhi took has done a world of good to Congress party. "Not only has Rahul Gandhi come back with new energy and vigor but the entire rank and file has been recharged and re-invigorated" he said.

The party is hungry for action in the parliament, outside parliament, in the streets of the cities and the fields of the farmers in the six lakhs villages of the country, he said.