Land is the new Lokpal: Anna, Kejriwal may unite in Jantar Mantar; Rahul MIA

Jantar Mantar is back in the headlines again. The ground zero of protest will once again be a staging ground for Anna Hazare, who has largely been on the sidelines since the Lokpal Bill was passed in 2013. He is set to return to Jantar Mantar today with an estimated 5,000 farmers for a two-day protest against the land ordinance and he may be in some old company. While he’s been keen to dissociate himself from former aide Arvind Kejriwal since the end of the Lokpal stir, Hazare has been sounding far more conciliatory since his former protege won the Delhi elections. He has now declared his openness to joining hands with the Delhi Chief Minister and AAP to fight the land ordinance. [caption id=“attachment_2115565” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Hazare returns to Jantar Mantar today. PTI image[/caption] “This ordinance is against the farmers. In an agriculturally dominated nation, when there is torture on the farmers then all the people should stand united. So we want that any opposition party or be it Kejriwal, all the workers should work together to take this agitation forward,” Hazare told NDTV in an interview. The AAP has already said that its leaders are willing to join the agitation as long as Hazare, who had ruled out campaigning for the party multiple times, specifically asks them to do so. If Kejriwal’s presence evokes a sense of deja vu, so does Hazare’s threat of ramping up to a bigger agitation at the Ramlila maidan – though without any plans of an indefinite fast. “Once people are awakened, a larger agitation would be initiated at Ramlila ground. Then we will not leave Delhi but launch a ‘jail bharo’ agitation,” Hazare said, adding the agitation will not be called off even after three months if the government went ahead with the changes as per the ordinance. “Be ready to go jail,” he told supporters in Haryana before setting off for Jantar Mantar. Faced with the threat of a Lokpal-like political storm, the Modi government may consider toning down some of the more contentious sections of the ordinance – more so given the RSS’ own reservations about the bill, The RSS had cautioned against the ordinance which it said is ’not acceptable’ in its current form given it was perceived as anti-poor. “We’ve strongly opposed to the removal of the social impact assessment of industrial corridors. We fail to understand why government should procure land from farmers for multi-specialty hospitals and public schools," Prabhakar Kelkar, general secretary of RSS-affiliated union Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, had told Firstpost . The RSS has warned the BJP that the ordinance was one of the biggest reasons for the party’s poor show in the Delhi Assembly election. The organisation also said that the legislation was uniting the opposition parties, who stood to gain from the widespread and steadily increasing opposition to the ordinance. According to an  Indian Express report, despite the fact that it may receive a thumbs down from the industry and division among the ministers, the government may be willing to amend contentious clauses related to social impact assessment and consent clause to win some peace. “…the level of dissatisfaction among the farmers is immense and the issue is extremely sensitive. The government is not ready to face any unrest at the crucial time. The government is not ready to face any unrest at the crucial time. Political considerations have to be kept in mind,” an Economic Times report quoted unnamed officials in the Prime Minister’s Office as saying. As Firstpost's R Jagannathan had pointed out in his piece, one easy way out for the Modi government is to send the ordinance to a joint committee of Parliament and wait for its report. For one it would force the opposition to consider other important economic legislation like the Insurance Bill that have been stonewalled so far. However, while the Modi government may be able to sidestep the political opposition with a parliamentary committee, a popular agitation led by a suddenly relevant Hazare is a different ball game.  More so, since Jantar Mantar has suddenly become popular with parties of all sorts, including the Congress which was once on the receiving end of such protests in its UPA days. There is media speculation that the Congress will be holding its own protest at the Jantar Mantar against the ordinance so that Hazare doesn’t ‘hijack the issue and walk away with credit’, according to this Indian Express report. However, as has now become a predictable pattern, Rahul Gandhi is likely to be missing in action. Gandhi has been “granted a leave of absence for a few weeks after which he will return and resume his active participation in the affairs of the Congress party”, party sources said on Sunday On one hand, this disappearing act may be wise since leading a poorly attended Congress agitation would only hurt. And there is little chance of him getting a Kejriwal-like welcome at Hazare’s protest.  When asked about possible Congress participation in the Jantar Mantar agitation, Hazare icily said, “If Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi wants to join the agitation, he can come and sit among the public.”