Modi government trying to impose land bill on farmers: Nitish

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Saturday that the Narendra Modi government was "trying to impose controversial land acquisition bill on farmers through the ordinance route that will prove costly".

"Modi's government is desperate to pass the land acquisition bill in the Rajya Sabha, where it was opposed, to impose it on millions of farmers, who are protesting against it across the country," Nitish Kumar told reporters after attending an official function here.

"For Prime Minister Modi, farmers' interest hardly matter. What matters for him is the interest of corporates as he has been trying to push through the land bill," Nitish Kumar said.

His reaction after the union Cabinet on Saturday recommended re-issuance of the controversial land acquisition ordinance for the third time, as the earlier one is lapsing on June 4.

Nitish Kumar said that never before was any bill opposed in such a way by the people across the country.

"People as well as differnt political parties, except the BJP and its allies, have been opposing the bill and demanding its withdrawal. Such opposition has never been seen before," he said.

The chief minister said that his party, Janata Dal-United, like other parties, too was opposed to the bill, which would "snatch land from farmers for corporate houses".

Nitish Kumar said that Modi had made the land bill a "prestige issue" by ignoring the opposition by the country's farmers.

He also targeted union ministers who had visited Bihar from May 26 to 29, saying that they were only addressing press conferences and doing nothing else.

"Union ministers are like paratroopers, who have no work, except to address press conferences in hotels here and there," the Bihar chief minister remarked.

Nitish Kumar said that all union ministers were parroting the name of only one man in their statements.

As for the ban on a students' body in IIT Madras, Nitish Kumar said that Modi was "trying to murder democracy" through the ban on freedom of expression at the IIT.

"I strongly favour freedom of expression in the country," he added.