AIADMK supported Land bill for "return favour", says CPI

Chennai, Mar 17: CPI(M) today alleged that AIADMK had supported NDA's 'anti-farmer' Land Acquisition Act in the Lok Sabha "expecting a return favour."

"The AIADMK high command had taken such a stand (supporting the Act) expecting a return favour," CPI(M) state unit Secretary G Ramakrishnan said here. However, he declined to elaborate when asked what the 'return favour' meant, saying it was upto the journalists to make it out.

Ramakrishnan was responding to a query on AIADMK supporting the controversial Bill in the Lok Sabha and its chief J Jayalalithaa explaining in detail why her party had backed it. Earlier, DMK chief M Karunanidhi had wondered if AIADMK's supporting the BJP's Land Act had to do anything with its party chief Jayalalithaa's appeal against her conviction in the Rs 66.66 crore assets case, in which the Karnataka High Court had reserved the judgement.

Ramakrishnan recalled that though Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's meeting with Jayalalithaa in January was billed as a 'courtesy call,' the ruling party in Tamil Nadu had later supported the Centre on the increase in FDI cap in insurance and had now backed the land act. He said the AIADMK, had however opposed the Land Act brought in by the previous UPA government in 2013.

Flaying the BJP's Land Act as 'anti-farmer' which would affect agriculture and farmers, Ramakrishnan said that joining the nation-wide protests against the same, his party will hold agitations in different parts of the state, including Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem, Tirunelveli and Tanjavur on March 23.

PTI