Land bill row: BJP rallies behind Centre

Bengaluru: Rallying behind the government, the BJP on Saturday decided to launch a counter-offensive against the opposition “disinformation campaign” on the controversial Land Bill with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that his growth model was pro-poor.

“The Congress is shamelessly opposing this progressive law, which has better provisions of social security, only for mere political posturing and creating confusion among the people of this country,” the 10-page resolution adopted at the party’s national executive said.

At the two-day National Executive meeting, which concluded on Saturday without party patriarch L. K. Advani giving his customary address, Modi emphasised on the growth model that his government was trying to pursue through creation of jobs and anti-poverty programmes. There was no official word on why Advani did not make a speech, which he has done in all the Executive meetings barring in 2013, but there were speculations that he was not keen to speak, as he felt marginalised since the emergence of Modi.

There were also reports that he resented suggestions that his speech would be vetted before its presentation.