'Next PM' Gandhi vows to protect farmers' rights

Rahul Gandhi, tipped as a future Indian premier, vowed Saturday to protect farmers' rights against greedy land developers as he ended a march through the nation's dusty countryside. Gandhi, who has pitched himself as champion of the India's poor, told a rally that the ruling Congress party to which he belongs, was committed to ensuring farmers receive fair compensation for their land. "Farmers say if a rich person's land is taken, he is given the market rate, but when it comes to a poor farmer, he is fired upon and beaten," Gandhi, 41, told a rally of thousands of farmers in Aligarh in northern India. The rally capped a four-day trek by Gandhi, scion of the famed Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, and his supporters through a western region of the pivotal opposition-ruled state of Uttar Pradesh. Crucial assembly elections are set to be held next year in the state that will be serve as a dress rehearsal for national elections due in 2014. Analysts say how well the Congress party performs in the polls will be viewed as a major test of Gandhi's electoral appeal and for his prospects of being prime minister. Gandhi is son of national Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi. Embattled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Gandhi loyalist picked by Sonia to lead the government which has been reeling from a string of graft scandals, is seen by analysts as keeping the premier's seat warm for Rahul. Rahul Gandhi, who is managing the party's campaign in Uttar Pradesh, promised in the televised speech that a land acquisition bill expected to be presented by Congress in the next parliamentary session would protect farmers' rights. The legislation is intended to guarantee farmers market rates for their land. Bitter and often violent disputes over land acquisition regularly hold up industrial projects. Smoothing the process is seen as one of the biggest challenges for India in order to achieve rapid economic development.