The protesters followed the call of Ekta Parishad, a non-violent, people’s movement that fights for reforms in land rights and has been asking for land to be redistributed for the past 25 years.
The demonstration, called “Parliament of the Landless” was organized to draw attention on the lack of action by consecutive governments to implement the National Homestead Land Rights Act’, that would ensure land rights to millions of homeless families – according to the Census 2011, there are 10.69 crores of landless and homeless families in India.
The demonstrations received support by many political leaders including Faggan Singh Kulste (Member of Parliament and President of Tribal Portfolio of BJP), Kantilal Bhuria (Member of Parliament and Former Tribal Welfare Minister), Juel Oraom (Minister of Tribal Affairs), Bhakt Charan Das (Member of Parliament) and Arif Mohammad Khan (Former Minister and Member of Parliament).
Representatives from Ekta Parishad had separate meetings with Shri Arvind Kejriwal (Chief Minister of Delhi), Rahul Gandhi (Leader of Opposition, Parliament) and Shri Narendra Modi (Prime Minister of India).