Land ordinance to lapse, says Modi

Says oppn led a scare campaign; Nitish, Sonia say it's a victory of the people

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said his government woukd not re-promulgate the contentious land acquisition ordinance, allowing it to lapse when the extension ends on Tuesday.

In his monthly Mann ki Baat (From the Heart) radio broadcast, the PM said he didn't want to give an opportunity to those trying to mislead or scare farmers by spreading misinformation about the ordinance. He said the lapsing would restore the legislative situation on the issue as it had existed prior to his government.

A couple of hours later, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Bihar's chief minister, Nitish Kumar, termed the government's decision s defeat for the PM and a victory of the people.

Kumar, sharing the stage with Gandhi and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad at a 'swabhiman rally' at Patna's Gandhi Maidan, said the rollbackwas actually the nation's Mann ki Baat. Gandhi said the Modi government was anti-farmer and wanted to take land from poor farmers to give to its crony capitalists.

Business chamber Assocham termed the decision a setback for economic reforms, making acquisition of land for crucial industrialisation a Herculean task.

Modi said misapprehensions were spread about the government's land bill, though states had demanded amendments to the Act of 2013 to help build infrastructure in rural areas.

In his 20-minute address, the PM maintained that the suggestions for "improving" upon the Act of 2013 had come from states - the latter'd said that for the welfare of farmers, there should be canals to bring irrigation water, electric poles for power, roads, houses and work for poor villagers.

And, that "we should free this law from the clutches of the bureaucracy". The government had issued the ordinance and then reissued it twice, as the land bill could not be passed by Parliament, with stiff resistance by most opposition parties and in some units of the ruling coalition.

"Farmers should neither have doubts nor have any fear and I will not give any such opportunity to anybody...Now, there is no cause for any doubt and if anybody tries to create fear, you should not be scared," said Modi.

The PM also said 110 million people had associated with the insurance policies his government had announced, half of these being women. He said 177.4 million had opened bank accounts under the Jan-Dhan Yojana in the past year, depositing Rs 22,000 crore. And, that 131,000 financial literacy camps were organised in the past year.

He expressed concern at the recent violence in Gujarat. Separately, adding that he'd recently met some Muslim sufis. Modi said sufism represented the tradition of love, piety and tolerance, and the spread of its message could benefit Islam and the world.