Police lathicharge on Youth Congress workers and farmers as they protest against Land Acquisition Bill in Jaipur on Tuesday. (Press Trust of India)
At least a dozen people, including Congress leader Sachin Pilot, were injured on Tuesday after they were beaten by the police while marching towards the Rajasthan state assembly in protest against the land acquisition rules in the state and the Centre.
"We are against the land ordinance bill and anti-farmer policies of the BJP. They are arresting us but we will continue to fight. It is undemocratic to lathicharge us, our workers have broken bones," Mr Pilot, the president of the Congress' state unit, told NDTV from inside a police van, as cops took him and others into preventive custody.
The protesters, who were proceeding from Udyog Maidan in Jaipur to the assembly which is currently in session, tried to climb the barricades placed by the police.The police then used force and water cannon to disperse the group, injuring Congress leaders including Mr Pilot among others. Three people were rushed to hospital from the spot.
The state's BJP-led government moved amendments in the Rajasthan land acquisition bill in September last year. Civil Rights groups call the new bill "draconian."
In September last year, protests were led by civil rights activists Kavita Srivastav and Medha Patkar. Activists believe the bill would just lead to hasty grabbing of land as it takes away the rights of farmers to protest against acquisition of their land, sending them to jail, or even preventing them from going to a lower court.
Rajasthan government has defended the bill saying that it offers more compensation to farmers for their land.
The bill, which could not be passed in the last assembly session, is currently with a select committee after lawmakers from the ruling BJP pointed out that a state cannot bring its own law when a central law on the same subject exists.