File photo of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Behind the congressional aggression over farm laws is Rahul Gandhi’s desire to regain his land policy. Sources say Rahul and Priyanka are micromanaging Congressional strategy on the unrest.
- CNN-News18 New Delhi
- Last update: September 28, 2020 10:14 PM IST
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The politics of the leader of Congress, Rahul Gandhi, started with the land: he raised the problem of Kalawati in the Lok Sabha in his first term as deputy to his overnight stay in the house of a poor tribe in Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh in 2008 and his war against Mayawati at Gautam Buddha Nagar’s. Bhatta Parsaul village in 2011.
He had walked the dirt in Bhatta Parsaul that the then Mayawati government took away from him for a project. He was arrested and later released. It was also his movement against a Vedanta project in the Niyamgiri Hills in Odisha to protect the tribes. His favorite project was the land acquisition bill that the UPA pushed to protect the land of poor farmers.
Criticism soon came that Rahul Gandhi had abandoned the farmers’ problems and disappeared. However, now he is back. Behind the congressional aggression on farm laws is Rahul Gandhi’s desire to get his land policy and agenda back.
Sources say both Rahul and Priyanka are micromanaging Congressional strategy on farm bill turmoil. Rahul has made it clear that this would have to be a downward movement from above. State and district units would have to take the initiative and gradually come to the center. That is why on Bhagat Singh day, the state committees of the Pradesh Congress were asked to stir. Even a normally reticent and reluctant Punjab prime minister had to step forward. Amarinder Singh was in a sit-in all day. In fact, he created a controversy by saying that farm laws will make farmers vulnerable to ISI’s proposals.
Then came Sonia Gandhi’s decision to advise states governed by Congress that they should consider passing laws under Article 254 (2) of the Constitution that allows state legislatures to pass a law to override a core law that later comes by the assent of the president. The reason behind this is simple and it was pioneered by Rahul Gandhi. A case in the Supreme Court could mean a higher court ruling in favor of the farm bill. And as in the case of Rafael, this would be seen as a defeat of what Congress was fighting for and would give more force to the government’s position on the law.
Second, proactive state legislatures mean that they would assert state supremacy and add force to the argument that the farm law violated the federal spirit, since agriculture is a state matter.
Rahul Gandhi is likely to resume his Punjab and Haryana ‘yatra’ on the land question soon. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has also been micromanaging the upheavals of the land and is expected to land in Uttar Pradesh after Diwali to monitor agricultural protests.
The culmination of the Congress movement will be at Gandhi Jayanti on October 2 and there could be a great Gandhis show.
Rahul Gandhi’s push for this aggression is also due to the fact that he wants to project the Narendra Modi government as a ‘ki Sarkar starter suit’ helping selected companies at the expense of farmers.
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