gandhi leads protest against Modi'sland law

NEW  DELHI:

Beleaguered opposition  leader  Rahul
Gandhi is  set  Sunday to lead a rally
of  thousands  of  farmers  in the Indian
capital against  Prime Minister Narendra
Modi's controversial overhaul of  laws
on land -buying

Dressed all in white and waving opposition
Congress party  flags busloads of farmers
were gathering in New Delhi fr the protest
against Modi's bill,which makes it easier
for business to purchase farmland

After storming to power last year's
elections promising to reform the economy,
Modi says the  bill is   needed to improved
the efficincy  of land  purchases for
factories ,industrial corridors and other
development projects.

But anger has been mounting in the rural
areas over the move ,seen as favouring
big business and compounding the misery
of debt-laden  farmers ,Many f them have
already suffered extensive unseasonal rain
damage to winter crops,

 Just hours before the rally was set to start of
,Modi accued the opposition of manipulating
farmers and denied that his  right -wing
government was anti-poor,

Gandhi is to address Sunday's rally just days
after returning from a two months sabbatical
to reflect on his  party's defeats which had
led to ridicule of his leadership skill.

Various Congress  leader have predicted
100,000 farmers  will turn out  for the day
long  protest ,After parking  into buses and
trains from rural areas  across   a handful
of northern states, farmers were gathering
at the  ground  chanting "Rahul" Gandhi is
our leader and  anti  bill slogan.

It  also scraps the  need for a  social impact
assessment to find  out  how many people
would be affected by the loss of  land,
AFP