Don’t believe lies on Land Bill, says PM Modi at Bengaluru meet

Bengaluru: Countering attacks from Opposition parties including the Congress on the controversial Land acquisition bill, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused them of spreading lies and seeking to draw political mileage and said his government empathised with farmers and was committed to empower them.

“Those spreading lies do not know how to protect the interests of farmers,” said Mr Modi at a public meeting at the National College Grounds in the city where a two-day BJP National Executive meeting is underway but made no direct reference to the Land Bill which has emerged as a rallying point for the Opposition to target his government. “How did farmers lose their land? Where did it go?... To get a job of a peon for their children or to make them a driver, they were compelled to sell their land to pay bribes,” Mr Modi said on a day when his government re-promulgated the land acquisition ordinance a day before it was to lapse.

On farmers’ empowerment, he said, “I have not come from the heavens. I have lived among villagers and poor people and have reached here...I know that India will not make progress till villages develop and till farmers make progress.”

Read: Modi government is here to stay for next 10-20 years, says Amit Shah at BJP National Executive meet

LK Advani likely to address meet today

Contrary to speculation, BJP patriarch L.K. Advani not only attended the National Executive Committee meeting of the party on Friday, he may address the meeting on Saturday— the last day of the conclave.

Mr Advani was seen seated next to party national president Amit Shah at the meeting. There were reports that he might not make it to the meeting after he reportedly told one of the BJP national general secretaries that he had nothing to offer them.

There are unconfirmed reports that Mr Advani may speak just before Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivers his concluding remarks on the last day of the meeting on Saturday.

Read: Stop finding faults in Modi government, hunt for Rahul instead: Amit Shah takes a dig at Congress

On Friday, taking on the Congress for saying that its policies were being “copied” by his government, the Prime Minister said some programmes may seem similar “but sometimes, more powerful than policies is the intent. We have good and firm intentions, yours were not.”

He said his experience of 10 months in power demonstrated that “if intentions are right, then decisions are also right as are the results”.