BJP rallies behind govt, to launch counter attack on land bill

Rallying behind the government, the BJP today decided to launch a counter-offensive against the opposition "disinformation campaign" on the controversial land bill with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that his growth model was pro-poor.

At the two-day National Executive meeting, which concluded today without party patriarch L K Advani giving his customary address, Modi emphasized on the growth model that his government was trying to pursue through creation of jobs and anti-poverty programmes to benefit the poor.

There was no official word on why Advani did not make a speech, which he has done in all the Executive meetings barring in 2013, but there was speculation that he was not keen to speak as he felt marginalised since the emergence of Modi. There were also reports that he resented suggestions that his speech would be vetted before its presentation.

Briefing the media, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley merely said "internal decision-making is something we don't discuss with the media. How we settle the programme of the party, I am sure, even in the world of RTI and transparency, we can't share it with you."

Giving details of the Prime Minister's speech, he said its whole emphasis  was that the kind of growth model the government was trying to pursue  was that the economy should grow and the benefit of the enriched economy must then percolate to the poor.

It will be both by way of jobs, new job opportunities and also by way of the poverty alleviation programmes. Additional resource the state will provide," he said.

On the land bill, Jaitley said a large part of the discussion was that it will help in building rural infrastructure, particularly roads, irrigation, electrification, housing for poor, which, on the face of it, helped the weaker sections and rural India.

Jaitley said industrial corridors and industrialisation in the rural areas will help provide jobs to all, particularly the landless and dalits.

He termed UPA’s 2013 land bill as "anti-farmer" and said 2015 amendments in it sought to correct it.

"The 2013 Bill was an anti-farmer bill. It prevents irrigation, it prevents rural roads, housing in rural areas, rural electrification. The 2015 amendments seek to correct that," the Finance Minister said.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitaraman said an elaborate power-point presentation was made and a booklet titled "Information to Counter Disinformation" was released to rally the party cadre on the land bill issue.

"We will not allow the disinformation campaign which is baseless. The party will reveal the facts at every village and tell people that we have come without a law that is in favour of farmers and people.

"All party members would be going out to explain the public on the contents of the land bill.  The intention of the government is to help farmers," she said.

Jaitley said the Prime Minister gave several illustrations on how he is trying to take the government in the direction of helping the poor and cited schemes like ‘Swachh Bharat’ and health care for the poor.

The Prime Minister also listed several examples of how the opposition had tried to spread disinformation after BJP came to power and charged charged the Congress with helping the rich and wealthy instead. 

Jaitley listed the party’s resolve during the two days of deliberations saying it stood fully behind and endorsed every decision of the government.

He said the focus of the party was to strengthen itself and make it more vibrant to support the government in all its initiatives in changing the system of governance to include every section of society.

"There is a strong view in the party to campaign on all these issues and be fully behind the initiatives of the Prime Minister and the government," he said.

"The Congress gave away coal blocks free to the wealthy. Today the wealthy have to pay and the money is going to the tribal states," the Prime Minister told the gathering, while also citing the example of how Congress on the eve of government formation spread disinformation about BJP set to increase gas prices, but the opposite happened.

"The focus is an active party, active membership, active strength of the party right till the level of the district and the party supporting every programme of the government, involving the party in the decision-making and policy formation of the government," he said.

The two-day session of the party formation deliberated on many issues including the  preparations of the party in strengthening its base in such states where it was weak and also in poll-bound states like Bihar, where BJP is aiming to capture power from its erstwhile ally JD-U.

The session saw adoption of a political resolution that lauded the 10-months rule of the government and highlighted the various steps taken by it, including bringing in transparency in governance and ending a system marred with corruption and scams during the previous UPA regime.

On the first day of the session, a resolution highlighting the foreign policy initiatives was adopted lauding the pro-active role of Prime Minister Modi in enhancing the country’s image and prestige abroad.

Speaking today on the political resolution moved by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and seconded by Union minister Nitin Gadkari, a key party pointsman on the land bill, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman referred to the "disinformation campaign" run by Congress and other parties and aid the party would reach out to farmers in every village and explain to them all aspects of the bill.

The intention of the government is to help farmers," Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters.

Asked if national executive members expressed concern over any aspect of the bill, she said "chinta (concern), if there is any, is about the disinformation campaign".

She said the party will engage with allies like Shiv Sena and SAD, which have expressed serious reservations, and added that the party's intention was to take everybody on aboard and not to hurt anyone.

"When we are willing to engage with the opposition then why would not we engage with our own allies," she said.

Attacking the opposition, Sitharaman said they have failed to come out with any specific objection over the bill and accused them of opposing it for the sake of opposing.

Taking a dig at Congress, she charged that the UPA regime had allocated coal blocks to its "favourites" and questioned where its Social Impact Assessment was then.

"We are willing to discuss with anyone if there is anything anti-farmer. We feel we don't have any anti-farmer points," Sitharaman said.