Congress leaders including Amit Chavda on July 22 visited Mulasana village, where farmers are fighting to “reclaim” 60 lakh square metres of land—worth an estimated ₹20,000 crore—from builders who allegedly acquired it illegally.

The delegation also heard grievances from farmers in Godhavi and Manipur who lost their land without proper land acquisition procedures, allegedly for an Olympic Village project.

Builders vs grazers

At the heart of the dispute and subsequent protests are allegations that builders grabbed gauchar (pasture) lands traditionally used by ganotias (tenant farmers) to graze cattle.

The builders are accused of using false documents in order to have farmland and gauchar land allocated for non-agricultural use. The government also allegedly ignored the land ceiling law, and the lack of approval from the Charity Commissioner.

Alleged collusion

Amit Chavda, who leads the Congress legislative party in the Gujarat Assembly, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of having a hand in the alleged scam being perpetrated against farmers and herders who have used the land for four generations.

“Corruption in Gujarat is rampant, with people’s rights being stripped away. Looting occurs in the open, and land mafias have become ruthless,” he said, adding “There is involvement from the chief minister’s office to lower-level officials.”

“If villagers are protesting, the issue should be investigated, and corrupt officials should be sent to jail, but the chief minister, agriculture minister, secretary—everyone who gave the orders—are still sitting in their palaces.”

He also alleged that Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel’s government “wrongly allocated agricultural land for commercial use,” thus “continuing the scam (started) by the Vijay Rupani government”.

He threatened that farmers would march to Gandhinagar with their cattle to protest at the Assembly, if the government fails to restore the land to its original condition.