No link between farmer suicide case, land acquisition: Naidu

Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today asked the Opposition not to link the "unfortunate" incident involving farmer Gajendra Singh with the issue of land acquisition.
He also appealed to the Opposition not to politicise every issue.
Referring to the case of Gajendra Singh, the farmer from Rajasthan, who allegedly committed suicide at Jantar Mantar during a AAP rally, he said, "Some people tried to politicise the issue. It was an unfortunate incident. But there was no connection between this issue and land acquisition issue. Because that has nothing to do with land acquisition."
"That was for different reasons. Some parties are trying to club it with the land acquisition issue," the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said on the sidelines of a function.

Asking the Opposition not to divert attention of people from real issues, Naidu said, "More than 2 lakh farmers committed suicide in the last decade. At that time who was running the country? So don't try to politicise every issue and do not try to divert the attention of the people. It is my humble request to the opposition."
Terming the criticism of the NDA government over land bill as "unnecessary", he said large chunk of land was acquired for SEZ during the UPA regime.

"Unnecessary criticism has been levelled against the government. More than 2 lakh acres of land have been acquired for SEZ and other activities by the previous government in the last 10 years. What is their answers to this? Our government has not taken any major portion of land," he said.

Taking potshots at the Congress and Jairam Ramesh, he said, "They are saying the 2013 Land Act is a very progressive. Then if it was so progressive then why people voted against it. Jairam Ramesh is saying NDA's land bill will work as 'sanjeevani' for Congress.
"Your 2013 Bill did not work as 'sanjeevani' and you lost miserably as people doubted your integrity, commitment. You did not do your homework properly and your party people wrote to the then PM and also participated in an all-party meeting and then suggested improvements."
Defending the land Bill, he said, "Land acquisition is going to benefit the rural people, farming community. We are not trying to force anything on anybody. Our government will not do anything at all against farmers."

He asked the Opposition not to continue with the disinformation campaign. "It will not benefit anybody. You will also not get any benefit out of it."
On the business to be conducted in Parliament, he said, "We will have discussions on demands for grants, finance Bill, Black Money Bill, then we will take up GST. There is no question of rushing through but at the same time people are becoming impatient, they want decisions to be taken early.