New Delhi: Replying to the letter sent by social activist Anna Hazare, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday said that her party will oppose the contentious Land Bill at all fora and will continue the fight against it.
Sonia's reply to Hazare's letter comes within two days after the latter appealed to the opposition parties to resist the government's attempts to pass the Land Bill in Rajya sabha when introduced in the Upper House.
“The proposed new land law is not in farmers' interest. Congress will oppose the bill at all fora. Our fight on the issue will continue,” replied Sonia.
Hazare's close aide Vinayak Patil had on March 16 said, "Anna (Hazare) has written a letter to all the opposition parties to oppose the anti-farmer bill if it is introduced in the Rajya Sabha.”
Patil was in the capital to meet the opposition leaders and also hand over a memorandum to all major opposition parties.
He had further added, "We have also submitted a memorandum to Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh since the bill has been introduced by his Ministry.”
A united opposition on Tuesday sounded its battle cry over the land acquisition bill as leaders of 14 political parties, led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, marched to Rashtrapati Bhavan to urge President Pranab Mukherjee not to let the government go ahead with the "anti-farmer bill".
The march saw an energised Congress take on the Narendra Modi government over the bill, which they allege would allow corporates to gobble up agricultural land.
Sonia Gandhi, with former prime minister Manmohan Singh standing next to her, declared that the opposition was determined to defeat the land acquisition bill.
Gandhi said "democratic, secular and forward-looking forces are determined to defeat the Modi government`s designs" to promote corporate interests at the cost of farmers by taking away their land.
Shouting slogans like "Narendra Modi hosh me aao (come to your senses)" and "Modi sarkar hai hai (Modi government down, down)", the around 100 MPs, led by Gandhi, and Congress` Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ambika Soni, with Sharad Yadav and leaders of other parties, marched the around one km distance from Parliament House to Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Around 20 of them went in to submit the memorandum -- signed by 28 leaders -- to the president.
The two-page memorandum said "all the progressive, secular, democratic forward-looking forces are determined to defeat the Modi Sarkar`s design to promote division and social disharmony.
"We request Rashtrapatiji to intervene to protect the interests of the kisans (farmers), and impress upon the Modi sarkar, not to go ahead with the amendment in the Rajya Sabha."
(With Agency inputs)
