New Delhi: Congress Wednesday said it does not expect land acquisition bill will actually come before Parliament in first half of the Budget session a day after Sonia Gandhi led an Opposition march of 14 parties to President House on the issue.
"Let us wait what comes before the Parliament and at that point we will express our views. We are not sure whether it will come up in this Session or not. The government is certainly aware of the extraordinary opposition to this across the length and breadth of the country."
"I don't see anything working out in their favour on this front...I don't expect that the Land Acquisition Ordinance will actually come before Parliament in next couple of days," party spokesperson Rajiv Gowda told reporters at the AICC briefing.
Responding to a question as to how the Opposition's unity will last long as no other parties except Left and DMK have supported it on coal and mines and mineral bill that were sent to Select Committee, Gowda insisted that land bill was a different issue.
"BJP has a tough role ahead on this front. We will be able to maintain the unity of the opposition on this particular issue," he said. Gowda said the BJP has planned to send ministers across the country to canvass support for the measure but that is not going to work.
Describing the nine amendments brought by it in the bill during its passage in Lok Sabha as "cosmetic", he said they have not addressed the real concerns Congress and also 13 other opposition parties have. He said there was a slogan 'Narendra Modi Kisan Virodhi' at the protest march on Tuesday.
"I think that is the message that has already gone across the length and breadth of the country. When Modi was in Parliament he had said even during his foreign trip, he was thinking about the tribal and farmer. This was just how to grab the land of the tribal and farmer. That is the kind of message that seems to have permeated across the length and breadth of the country."
On coal and mines and mineral bills, he said members of Rajya Sabha of different parties had worked out an agreement with the government basically saying that reports will be submitted on Wednesday.
"What has happened is that some of the leaders of the opposition parties regardless of their specific concerns about aspects of the issues on hand, they feel that they have given their word and do not want to go back on it.
"You might find that those reports will be tabled and those Bills will come up for consideration. That is the situation there. I don't think Congress party is supporting those Bills," he said.
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