Winding up his four-day 'padyatra' in the battle against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused her government of acquiring farmers' lands for golf courses and racing tracks and firing upon poor farmers when they protest.
Addressing a Kisan Mahapanchayat, capping his 70-km foot march through the villages of Greater Noida and Aligarh district, he rejected criticism that he was enacting a "drama", referring to Mayawati's calling it "nautanki".
Using strong words, Gandhi said that in Uttar Pradesh a farmer gets to know about the acquisition of his land only when the builder comes and tells him that the land belongs to him. He saud, "In UP, we are not against development or making roads. But this land is being taken away to make golf courses, colonies and racing track from farmers and that is why they are angry."
"The farmer says if in Lucknow a rich person's land is taken he is given the market rate but when it comes to a poor farmer he is fired upon, beaten, and government does not talk to us," Gandhi said.
A crowd of about 10,000-15,000 farmers attended the Mahapanchayat, whose venue became soggy in early morning rains, capping the padyatra beginning in the villages of Bhatta-Parsaul, the epicentre of a violent agitation against land acquisition in May.
Dismissing criticism about his campaign, Gandhi said many people felt it was a drama. "A politician needs to go to people and talk to them and that is what I believe," he said.
Gandhi said some farmers are worried because the land acquisition law is old and they have problems with it.
He said, "We will try to bring such a law that will benefit the farmer. But only changing the law won't help because the same law exists in Haryana and UP but Haryana government takes people into confidence and talks to them."
"UP government doesn't talk to the people. When a farmer demands his rights government orders firing on him," he said.
Gandhi said the new policy on land acquisition will not benefit the affected people there. "That is why I set out on this padyatra," he added.
He said some farmers were killed by police firings in Bhatta-Parsaul. He came to know about this when he visited these places. They told the government that if the government had to pay adequate compensation for land but police in turn fired and beat them up.
"A UP farmer is knowledgeable and his wisdom is better than many officers. Your thinking should be involved in law-making," he said.
The Congress leader maintained that though development was talked about in Delhi, his party wanted it to reach equally everywhere.
"Not that only few people get the benefits of development and our farmers, dalits, adivasis lag behind. This is how we think. That's why we gave you NREGA. Even labourers in UP are suffering," he said.
He alleged that though the Centre wanted to implement NREGA for the benefit of farmers and labourers, the UP government rejected it.
"UP Chief Minister called it worthless when we started implementing it. We are committed to a strong Land Bill, Right to Food and Education," Gandhi said.
Rahul garnered generous praises from farmer representatives who spoke alongside Congress leaders from the dais.
One of them said, "You are not a leader who wants to satisfy farmers by mere words. You are genuinely wiping their tears by listening to their woes."
When Rahul arrived at the sealed exhibition ground he was given a traditional welcome with a pagri and loud applause. He was later gifted with a hookah.
He accepted the gifts as Congress supporters raised "Rahul zindabad" slogans.
He took the stage once all the farmer representatives finished speaking.
And as the VVIP took to the dais, farmers screamed from the ground and scrambled to get heard.
Such was the scramble to speak from the separate stage for farmer representatives that the organizers had to threaten to cut off power supply to the mikes.
It was later done so to help Gandhi speak, as farmers did not stop from taking over the mike. To those who were left out, Rahul said, "You all can meet me later.".
He later made a hurried exit from the venue straight to the helipad from where he returned to the capital.
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