Congress workers protesting land bill face water canons, lathis

Police try to disperse Congress protesters in New Delhi. Photograph: ANI/Twitter

Hundreds of Congress workers on Monday clashed with the police during a protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party government's Land Acquisition Bill, saying it was anti-farmer.

Police resorted to lathi-charge and used water canons, leading to injuries to some including Youth Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Brar, when Congress workers tried to break barricades at Jantar Mantar to proceed towards Parliament.

Senior party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Jairam Ramesh, Ambika Soni, Ahmed Patel addressed the protesters who gathered at Jantar Mantar.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who was not present in the protest, expressed her solidarity with the protesters in a message through Patel.

"Soniaji has said that she was always with them and will continue to back and support the movement," Patel said reading out Gandhi's message.

Youth Congress workers clash with police. Photograph: ANI/Twitter

Promising to block the bill's passage in the Rajya Sabha, Azad termed the ordinance as an attempt to weaken the food security law passed by the United Progressive Alliance government. "You continue protesting outside the Parliament, we will try not let the bill get passed when it is introduced in the Parliament," the leader of Congress in the Rajya Sabha said. "We are not talking about changing the shape of the bill. We are not for any amendment of the bill. We want this bill to go lock, stock and barrel," he said.

The rally was a culmination of Youth Congress' foot march against the Land Acquisition Bill launched on Friday from Bhatta-Parsaul village in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida district which reached Rajghat in New Delhi on Sunday night.

Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "10 lakh-suit", Ramesh, who led the rally from Bhatta-Parsaul, said the agitation was a "sanjeevani" for the party.

Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, Ramesh said, "One was 'Sabarmati ke Sant' who believed in a frugal lifestyle and today we have 'Sabarmati ke mahant' who wears suit worth Rs 10 lakh...They talk of 'ghar wapsi' where as we promise 'jameen vapsi'."

Ramesh, who was instrumental in drafting the UPA's land bill, slammed the government for "doing away" with the safeguards, thus, "bringing back" the draconian 1894 law. "For the first time we put power in the hands of the farmers from the hands of the collectors. Even the land labourers were given bargaining power through the law. It had the provisions of four times compensation. We essentially repealed the century old law," he said.