Hazare has announced forty rallies across the country and a 'strong protest' against the contentious legislation, dismissing the Prime Minister's defence of the Land Bill in his radio address as 'misleading'.
Hazare's agitation has been building steam since the first agitation with parties like the DMK, which has been down and out in Tamil Nadu, also pledging their support to the cause. DMK chief M Karunanidhi, who earlier presided over a rally against the Bill on 20 March in Chennai, on Sunday wrote a letter to Hazare promising that his "party's stout opposition to the Bill will continue till the last."
MDMK a former ally of the BJP in Tamil Nadu, is also backing the agitation with its leader Vaiko sharing the stage with Hazare on an earlier occasion.
The Aam Aadmi Party is also expected to back the Hazare agitation in Delhi and the party is likely to use the agitation to mobilise its cadre across the nation after it's new-found desire to grow across the nation. As the infighting in the party seems to be inching towards resolution, the agitation could well help the party unify over an issue against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Hazare has also written to other opposition party leaders, many of whom may just decide to back him if the agitation starts in April before the budget session of Parliament resumes. The bill has cleared the Lok Sabha where the BJP enjoys a thumping majority, but shows little signs of clearing the Rajya Sabha.
While he relied on the support of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to bolster the numbers at his previous rally at Jantar Mantar, he refused to consider the Congress's agitation against the legislation. He was dismissive of the Congress party chief's agitation against the bill, in which she marched with other opposition parties to the president to protest against the bill.
"She was just doing politics and it has nothing to do with the welfare of farmers," Hazare said.
"Modi has been misleading the farmers himself over the Land Acquisition Bill," he said, soon after the Prime Minister had defended it on Sunday.
The Prime Minister in his 'Mann ki Baat' radio address on Sunday defended every controversial clause of the law and claimed that the opponents of the bill were spreading lies. However, Hazare accused the Prime Minister of seeing others through 'coloured glasses' and said the bill itself was misleading.
"This bill is not going to help farmers, but the big corporates only," he said.
He also said that while the Land Acquisition Act enacted by the previous government in 2013 had a provision of taking consent of about eighty per cent of concerned farmers for land acquisition for private players, the present government had ignored this clause against which they will strongly launch their protest.
The BJP has been working to stem the anger against the bill but hasn't managed to make much headway in this regard so far. The Prime Minister on Sunday struck a conciliatory note while attacking those opposed to the bill, saying that the government was willing to incorporate all suggestions in the legislation. Highways minister Nitin Gadkari earlier wrote a letter to Anna Hazare and Sonia Gandhi challenging them to a live debate on the issue.
However, given they seem to have the upper hand in the Rajya Sabha, the opposition parties are unlikely to bend. Hazare also seems to be better prepared this time round, with AAP beefing up the support that multiple farmer organisations have already provided.
He perhaps could have done better to bridge the gap with the Congress, which would have given him more heft, but may prefer not to, given that his earlier agitations were against them. But the activist's timing couldn't have been better.
Unseasonal rains that have damaged crops is also bound to fuel anger against the government if relief measures provided are seen as inadequate. Hazare may have lost the first round at Jantar Mantar with a turnout far lower than expected but as anger mounts, the government may find its back against the wall on the legislation.
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