Land bill takes centre stage at BJP meet in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: The land bill, a big concern of the Narendra Modi government, became the focal point at the BJP national executive meeting that took off in Bengaluru on Thursday morning. While the party’s office bearers met for a preparatory meeting here on Thursday before the executive begins on Friday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and members of the parliamentary board attending, the political-economic and foreign policy resolutions and the crucial land bill issue that the executive will take up was vetted at the highest level.This is to ensure that political stand taken by the party here and the government’s policies are in tandem.
The party is preparing to make the land bill a people’s issue and fight the perception “created by the Opposition” that it is an anti-farmer legislation. A Powerpoint presentation puts forward BJP’s arguments to “expose the Opposition’s hypocritical stand” on issue.
The BJP’s argument against those parties opposing the bill in its present form, says the same parties had opposed the 2013 format of the bill on June 27, 2014, while participating at a meeting in Delhi but were now supporting the same bill. The BJP asks Congress, TMC, JD(U), SP and others why their respective party-run state governments have not worked on blueprints to implement the land bill in its 2013 form, if it was an acceptable proposition to them. The party also accuses Congress of doing a half-hearted job while bringing the bill in 2013, and now playing politics with it. Union law minister Sadananda Gowda said, “After the party’s committee set up by Amit Shah on the land bill which will speak to farmer organizations in all the states and amendments incorporated in the ordinance, we are convinced that the land bill is good and should go through.” He was speaking to reporters here on Thursday. BJP is planning to take the land bill campaign to the ground level. The party’s door to door campaign to take its membership drive into the second stage for verifications, will also include explaining the advantages of the bill to farmers and common people, as part of the Jan Sampark Abhiyan.
Foreign policy lauded:
The party’s foreign policy resolution that will come up on Friday, will highlight how the Modi government initiated a change in perception, from an atmosphere of negativity to positive impression about the country. Modi’s initiative of dealing with all nations – from Bhutan to Sri Lanka to Nepal to the US – is also part of the new chapter in diplomacy that will be focused upon.