Land ordinance to be biggest trigger for PM Modi's downfall: Congress

Jammu, Apr 21: Asserting that the Narendra Modi-led central government cannot displease majority population of the farmers to please a handful of corporates, J&K Congress today said the land ordinance will prove to be the biggest trigger for the prime minister's down fall.

"Land ordinance will be the biggest trigger for Modi's downfall. You cannot displease 67 per cent of the population who are farmers to please a handful of corporates who PM is beholden to," Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader and former minister Nawang Rigzin Jora said today.

Jora said, "the corporate houses, some of whom own big media houses, helped catapult Modi in the Prime Minister's chair 10 months ago.

The media blitzkrieg and the lavish campaign that BJP launched were all thanks to these corporate friends."

"Since it is pay back time, prime minister cannot but bring the land ordinances - one after another. His friends are demanding their pound of flesh.

Otherwise, how does one explain the need for ordinance without operationalising the 2013 Right to Fair Compensation & Rehabilitation Act", he said.

Jora said this Act, which was the collective effort of all the political parties, was enacted after thorough discussion in the parliament.

"The amendments proposed by BJP were accepted; the bill went through all the legislative processes including scrutiny and due diligence of the select committee. Then, what necessitated an ordinance," he asked.

"Doing away with the 80 per cent consent clause, doing away with the social impact assessment clause, eschewing the land back to the farmers in case work doesn't start, masquerading commercial hospitals and educational institution in the social infrastructure; doing away with punitive measures for officials acts of omission and commission many other similar key features of the UPA Act cannot but be seen as favouring the corporates".

PTI