Anna Hazare calls for nation-wide “jail-bharo” against Land Bill; Akhil Gogoi floats political party

Anna Hazare also pointed out that the country’s farm land had not been mapped and classified even after 68 years of Independence.

Noted Gandhian Anna Hazare on Friday announced a three-month long intensive campaign starting April in order to launch a country-wide “jail-bharo” agitation of peasants to stop the government from going ahead with acquisition of farmers’ land.

Hazare, who was speaking at the fourth convention of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) at Diroi-Rangoli of Sivasagar district in upper Assam, said he would organize as many as 40 massive rallies in ten states across the country in the next three months to build up a strong resistance to the BJP-led government’s land acquisition policy.

“Six months have passed since the BJP came to power. But where is the achche din? The farmers have not seen any achche din, nor have other common citizens. Achche din has come only for the capitalists,” Anna Hazare said.

He also said that while the Land Aqusition Act enacted by the previous Congress-led government in 2013 had a provision of taking consent of 80 per cent of farmers for acquisitioning land for private companies, the present BJP-led government had done away with this clause in the new Land bill. “We cannot allow this to happen,” he said.

Anna Hazare also pointed out that the country’s farm land had not been mapped and classified even after 68 years of Independence. “One of the demands of the ‘jail-bharo’ movement will be classification of farm land into six categories and to ensure that the best four categories of farm land is not transferred for industrial use. Only waste land in the fifth and sixth categories may be given, and that too on lease, for setting up industries,” he added.

Akhil Gogoi floats political party

Meanwhile, Akhil Gogoi, leader of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), an Assam-based group fighting for land rights for farmers, on Friday floated a new political party called ‘Gana-mukti Sangram, Asam’ and vowed to ensure defeat of the BJP and Congress in the 2016 assembly elections in the state.

“We are not going to contest in the 2016 Assam assembly election. But we will definitely work towards ensuring the defeat of both BJP and Congress,” out-going KMSS president Akhil Gogoi, who was named one of the four convenors of the new political party said. “Our new revolutionary party wants to root out capitalism and establish socialism in the true sense of the term,” he said.

Source:: Indian Express