It's the fourth and last day of Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's padyatra, that will eventually culminate in the maha-panchayat at Aligarh on Saturday, and he is briskly walking through many UP villages reaching out to farmers, telling them they have taught him more than being in the Lok Sabha has.
Through this journey, he has positioned himself as the voice of the hapless farmer to attack UP chief minister Mayawati's land acquisition policy. Today, he seemed to take a dig at another Chief Minister too, this time an ally - Mamata Banerjee.
At Gangoli village, Rahul Gandhi admitted while talking to farmers that coalition compulsions had held up the Centre's new land acquisition Bill. "We want to bring a land acquisition bill that can serve farmers over a long time, not one which may be questioned or thrown out in no time...What if we bring a bill in a hurry and then Bengal demands that we amend it?" Mr Gandhi asked.
At the next stop -- Chandpur village -- the Congress General Secretary said he had met not one farmer who was against development, "but the policies have to be fair...Your land is acquired at rates way lower than the market price. That's because you are poor. Robbery happens at night. In UP, farmers are being robbed in broad daylight."
And then again, Mr Gandhi said, "This is happening everywhere - Niyamgiri in Orissa, Bengal, Andhra. The poor are being exploited. But this is most rampant in UP."
Interacting with farmers at Devaka village, he said that he had not learnt as much in the Lok Sabha as he had learnt from the farmers.
"When we sit in Delhi or Lucknow, we don't get to know ground realities. I have not learnt as much in Lok Sabha as I learnt from you," Mr Gandhi said.
He spent the night at a famer's place in Maror-Garhi village in Aligarh district. Even there, he held a small gathering and spoke to the local villagers about their concerns.
Rahul Gandhi is walking through villages along the Yamuna Expressway; he is scheduled to arrive in Aligarh on Saturday to attend a maha-panchayat where farmers have been asked to share their views of UP's land acquisition policies. The state votes next year and Mr Gandhi's march unofficially launches the Congress' campaign and attempt to reclaim UP from Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Mayawati's government has been critical of Mr Gandhi's attempts to affiliate himself with farmers. He has spent three nights at different farmers' houses, and stops frequently to share a cup of tea with them as he tells them that their land "is being stolen" by a government that is bent on selling agricultural land to real estate developers. Farmers, he says, are the only party not making a profit.
The Supreme Court has agreed - at least in the case of close to 150 hectares of land that was taken from farmers in the Shahberi village of Grater Noida. The court has ordered the land be returned to the farmers. The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority was indicted for taking the land for industry, but then transferring it to developers for residential projects. The judges said, "Everything is meticulously planned... it is a brazen overreach of the judicial process. The authority has to act in public interest but what it did was to serve private builders' interest. You don't understand the psyche of a farmer. Land is his mother."
Through this journey, he has positioned himself as the voice of the hapless farmer to attack UP chief minister Mayawati's land acquisition policy. Today, he seemed to take a dig at another Chief Minister too, this time an ally - Mamata Banerjee.
At Gangoli village, Rahul Gandhi admitted while talking to farmers that coalition compulsions had held up the Centre's new land acquisition Bill. "We want to bring a land acquisition bill that can serve farmers over a long time, not one which may be questioned or thrown out in no time...What if we bring a bill in a hurry and then Bengal demands that we amend it?" Mr Gandhi asked.
At the next stop -- Chandpur village -- the Congress General Secretary said he had met not one farmer who was against development, "but the policies have to be fair...Your land is acquired at rates way lower than the market price. That's because you are poor. Robbery happens at night. In UP, farmers are being robbed in broad daylight."
And then again, Mr Gandhi said, "This is happening everywhere - Niyamgiri in Orissa, Bengal, Andhra. The poor are being exploited. But this is most rampant in UP."
Interacting with farmers at Devaka village, he said that he had not learnt as much in the Lok Sabha as he had learnt from the farmers.
"When we sit in Delhi or Lucknow, we don't get to know ground realities. I have not learnt as much in Lok Sabha as I learnt from you," Mr Gandhi said.
He spent the night at a famer's place in Maror-Garhi village in Aligarh district. Even there, he held a small gathering and spoke to the local villagers about their concerns.
Rahul Gandhi is walking through villages along the Yamuna Expressway; he is scheduled to arrive in Aligarh on Saturday to attend a maha-panchayat where farmers have been asked to share their views of UP's land acquisition policies. The state votes next year and Mr Gandhi's march unofficially launches the Congress' campaign and attempt to reclaim UP from Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Mayawati's government has been critical of Mr Gandhi's attempts to affiliate himself with farmers. He has spent three nights at different farmers' houses, and stops frequently to share a cup of tea with them as he tells them that their land "is being stolen" by a government that is bent on selling agricultural land to real estate developers. Farmers, he says, are the only party not making a profit.
The Supreme Court has agreed - at least in the case of close to 150 hectares of land that was taken from farmers in the Shahberi village of Grater Noida. The court has ordered the land be returned to the farmers. The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority was indicted for taking the land for industry, but then transferring it to developers for residential projects. The judges said, "Everything is meticulously planned... it is a brazen overreach of the judicial process. The authority has to act in public interest but what it did was to serve private builders' interest. You don't understand the psyche of a farmer. Land is his mother."
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