New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Tuesday clarified that it has not imposed prohibitory orders around the Rashtrapati Bhavan to discourage leaders from at least 11 opposition parties, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, from marching to President Pranab Mukherjee in a show of strength and solidarity against the controversial Land Acquisition Bill.
“There are no prohibitory orders in place. We will not stop a peaceful march,” Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi said. There were reports that the cops had enforced Section 144 in the area around Rashtrapati Bhavan to discourage the march. “Section 144 is not for peaceful protests,” Bassi said.
Reports of restrictions on the march rocked the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. “We won’t stop and will continue the march,” Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav, who is coordinating the joint protest, said. CPM leader Sitaram Yechury called it a “violation of basic rights” to protest.
Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi denied the charges that the government was using the state machinery to stop the march. “Nobody can take away your rights,” he said. Meanwhile, heavy security has been deployed at Vijay Chowk and other areas around the sprawling President’s House in Lutyens’ Delhi.
How many are expected to march?
Former prime minister and JDS chief HD Devegowda, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja, Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi, Samajwadi Party’s Ramgopal Yadav, DMK’s Kanimozhi, INLD’s Dushyant Chautala and the RJD’s Prem Chand Gupta are expected to participate.
The leaders will first assemble at Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in Parliament and then move to the President’s House. The massive march of over a hundred leaders is expected to end with a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee against the amendments proposed by the Narendra Modi government to a similar bill passed by the UPA in 2013.
Why Sonia leading the march is significant
Sonia attending the march is significant since neither she nor her son and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi were seen at the massive protest against the land bill organised by the Youth Congress at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Monday, which was a culmination of the party’s padyatra from Bhatta Parsaul village in neighbouring Noida that began four days back.
Rahul had led his party from the front during the days the UPA drafted and passed the Land Acquisition Act in 2013, making sure it is not perceived as anti-farmer.
Manmohan Singh attending the march is also signficant as it comes days after Sonia led a march to his residence to express solidarity after Singh was summoned by the CBI in a coal scam case.
What is the Congress charge against land bill?
Accusing the BJP government of “high-handedness” and carrying out a “brutal lathicharge” on its party workers who took to the streets against the Land Acquisition bill, the Congress on Monday vowed to take its protest on the issue in every nook and corner of the country.
Attacking the government for making changes in the Land Acquisition Act, Sharad Yadav said the ordinance has substantially diluted the previous Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 Act, which are against the interests of farmers.
The Lok Sabha had passed the controversial bill with nine amendments last week but the government faces an uphill task in the Rajya Sabha, where it is woefully short of a majority.
