Land Acquisition bill: BJP not incorporating opposition viewpoint, says Congress

The Congress on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of failing to incorporate the viewpoints of the opposition in the Land Acquisition bill, accusing the government at the Centre of 'fundamentally' altering the elements of the ordinance.

"The government has agreed to talk to different opposition parties about the bill. The opposition parties want to incorporate their views in the new bill as well. But if they don't talk and incorporate opposition party views, that would create problems. Therefore, there would be a problem [for the bill] to get passage in the Parliament," Congress leader Rajeev Shukla told ANI.

Former union minister Shashi Tharoor echoed his views, accusing the BJP of introducing 'sweeping objections' to the bill.

"This is a bill that passed about a year and a half ago. It was accepted by all parties and the BJP members joined in the unanimous acceptance of this bill. For them to introduce an amendment that fundamentally alters the thrust and tenor of the bill, that introduces sweeping objections in a large number of categories which themselves are so loosely defined: you can make anything an exception," he said.

"This would be seen by the entire country as an anti-farmer act. We are objecting to the introduction of the amendment to the bill," he added.

Earlier in the day, the opposition staged a walk-out in the Lok Sabha, protesting against the bill after it was introduced by Union Minister for Rural Development Chaudhary Birender Singh in the House.