Bengaluru: Seeking to blunt the opposition attack, the BJP leadership today rallied the rank and file asking them to spread the message that the controversial land bill was pro-farmer and targeted rivals accusing them of spreading “falsehood” on the issue.
The party began a two-day meeting of the National Executive in which it accused the opposition of being “desperate, hopeless and direction less” and took a jibe at Rahul Gandhi asking the Congress to “find” its leader and stop finding “non-existent” faults of the government.
The tone was set for the deliberations with the party President Amit Shah, in his Presidential address, telling the partymen that they can claim with pride that there is nothing in the amendments to the land law that is against the interests of the farmers.
“The Opposition has deliberately spread many misgivings about the bill which is in the interest of farmers. We will take the message to farmers. BJP is a friend of farmers. It is the farmers who have given us mandate.
“The Opposition is desperate, hopeless and direction less. They should stop finding those faults and shortcomings which do not exist. If they have to find something, then they should try to find their leader. I “Instead of raising non-issues and fictional issues, they should find out where their leader is,” Shah said, taking a dig at the Congress over the absence of its Vice-President who is on a sabbatical for introspection.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, party patriarch L K Advani were on the dais as Shah addressed the delegates, which included 111 National Executive members besides a number of special invitees, including chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states and its state presidents.
On the issue of cow slaughter, Shah lauded the steps of the party government in Maharashtra and Haryana, where cow slaughter has been banned and stringent punishment has been proposed.
“Whereever BJP governments have been formed, there have been laws made for banning cow slaughter to protect the animal,” he said.
At a public meeting later, Modi said that there was need to protect the livestock. “We need to raise milk production and we need to protect the farmers interest by protecting livestock.”
Shah also attacked the AAP saying it came to power on the slogan of Janlokpal but was so intolerant that it has removed its own internal Lokpal.
“The party came to power on the slogan of Lokpal. But the situation has come to such a pass that they removed their internal Lokpal. They have also targeted individual leaders and thrown them out of the party,” he said.
