The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh advises him to fight for farmers rights in Sonia's constituency Rae Bareli where land has been acquired for rail coach factory.
After Rahul Gandhi’s arrest late on Wednesday night and subsequent release, the land acquisition row in Uttar Pradesh turned into a mudslinging match on Thursday between Mayawati and the Congress.
Mayawati dubbed Gandhi’s dharna dramabaazi and advised him to raise the matter in Parliament where a Bill to amend the 1894 Land Acquisition Act has been pending for years. Gandhi had been on a dharna, along with agitating farmers, after sneaking into Bhatta Parsaul village, Greater Noida, early on Wednesday riding pillion on a motorcycle. He and Congress leader Digvijay Singh were arrested on Wednesday night and set free near the Delhi-UP border after midnight.
“The Congress’ yuvraj should first fight for farmers’ rights in his own home before agitating in UP,” Mayawati said. “The Congress should first go and agitate in Rae Bareli [Sonia Gandhi’s constituency] where farmers are agitating for compensation of their land acquired by the government to build a rail coach factory,” she said. Some farmers had stopped Sonia’s cavalcade on Wednesday in Rae Bareli.
The Bhatta Parsaul incident has nothing to do with compensation as the farmers had accepted the government proposal and the money in 2009, she said.
“The opposition parties have instigated the farmers and engineered a violent protest in view of the Assembly elections due next year,” she said.
Singh, however, blamed Mayawati. “She created hurdles for getting land for the rail coach factory,” he said. “She is anti-development.” The Congress leader demanded a thorough inquiry into land allotments in Noida and Greater Noida over the past 20 years.
He accused Mayawati of taking bribes for every plot of land sold in Noida and Greater Noida. “I have definite information that the Mayawati administration takes huge bribes for every square metre of land sold in Noida and Greater Noida,” he said. “Anna Hazare and civil society activists should wage their battle against corruption in UP. The Congress will support them.”
She has ignored the protests of farmers and their demand for a better compensation for land acquired by the government but she has got herself a palatial farmhouse on 100 acres at Badalpur in Western UP, Singh said. “I would like to take you [journalists] there so that you can see for yourself the huge farmhouse surrounded by 12-ft boundary walls.”
Thousands of Congress workers protesting against the UP government’s land acquisition policy and Gandhi’s arrest were detained throughout the state on Thursday after they clashed with the police and blocked railway tracks. BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley were arrested from Ghaziabad where they were sitting on a dharna.
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