Zameen Wapsi Andolan: Congress accuses Modi Govt of being 'pro-corporate'

New Delhi, Feb 25: Hitting the streets against the controversial land bill, Congress on Wednesday accused the Narendra Modi government of being "anti-farmer"and "pro-corporate" and vowed to take the battle across the country but both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were conspicuous by their absence.

Top leaders like

, Jairam Ramesh and Ahmed Patel were present at the 'Zameen Wapsi Andolan" organised at

, at which senior leaders dubbed as "black ordinance" the emergency measure which brought key changes in UPA's 2013 land law pushed by Rahul.

While the Congress President was in town, Rahul has taken a two-week sabbatical to reflect on recent incidents and party's future course.

Down in the dumps after its worst-ever debacle in the 2014 general elections, where it reached its nadir to a mere 44 seats in the Lok Sabha and not being able to get even the Leader of Opposition status, Congress senses a big opportunity for agitational politics after the ordinance.

It has chalked out plans to rally around farmers, hoping it could be an add on to its traditional Aam Aadmi plank.

Launching a scathing attack on the NDA and calling party workers to pan out across the country and orgnaise farmers, former Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh drew parallel of today's agitation at Jantar Mantar here with the comeback trail of Congress that had begun after its Chikmaglur victory in 1978 giving political re-birth to Indira-Gandhi.

Indira Gandhi had won the seat in 1978 one year after she had lost from her turf Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh in the anti- Emergency wave.

"As Chikmaglur had become a sanjeevani (life saving), similarly Congress will get a sanjeevani from here," Ramesh said.

"This is a zamin wapasi agitation against the ghar wapasi government," he said taking a dig at the BJP over conversion and reconversion issues in last few months.

Party general secretary Digvijay Singh projected the agitation against land ordinance as a "fight between farmers-labourers and big industrialists" and asked people to decide who will rule the country.

He alleged that while Modi will not honour his promises to people, he will fulfil all promises made to the big industrialists and noted that the land ordinance is a step in that direction.

Congress president's political secretary Ahmed Patel cited epic Mahabharata to drive home the point that Duryodhan lost the great war after he usurped the land belonging rightfully to others.

"They were talking of making the country Congress-Mukt (free of Congress). Within nine months of coming to power, they want to make the country Kisan-Mukt (free of farmers)," Patel alleged.

Latching on to the auction of Modi's pinstriped coat for Rs 4.31 crore, party spokesperson Raj Babbar asked whether the Prime Minister wants to hand over farmers's future to such industrialists.

PTI