Bassi Pathana (Fatehgarh Sahib)/Chandigarh, 21 September: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President Sunil Jakhar said that by enacting “black-laws” on agriculture the Modi government gives freedom to corporates to rob the farmers.
While addressing a dharna at Bassi Pathana today as part of a series of protests by the Congress party against the farming related black-laws passed by the NDA government, he said that the Union government was misleading the people by saying that after the new agriculture laws; farmers could sell their produce anywhere. Farmers have this freedom even before and there was no restriction on them to go anywhere in the country and sell their crop. The biggest interpretation of the law that the Modi government offers was misleading.
The state Congress president said, “Actually the Modi government had given freedom to big companies and rich businessmen to plunder the poor farmers without any government control. Till now the traders had to get their registration and buy the crop from the market. In this way he could not run away after buying the farmer’s crop. While the government will not even know who the trader is in the new system, he may run away from buying the crop and pay the amount, then where will the farmer find him, Jakhar asked.
He said that in fact the Modi government had chosen current time to bring the black-laws under a conspiracy so that people would not oppose it for fear of corona whereas entire Punjab was opposed to these laws.
Lashing out at the Akali Dal leaders, he said they were pretending to resign on this issue but playing a double game, they stand exposed. “If Akali Dal was against the policies of Modi government then what was the point of continuing to support the Modi govt. In fact the Akali Dal falsely tried to emerge as martyrs by resigning while its leaders returned to Punjab as agents of BJP with the intention of disrupting the unity of Punjab farmers. Former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal was still saying that she did not consider these laws as anti-farmer but the farmers were calling them anti-farmer. This made it clear that they don’t care for the farmers and were still looking for mercy from the Modi government to share power, Jakhar said.
He claimed that the Punjab government under the leadership of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has always protected the interests of the farmers whether it was the SYL canal issue or the procurement of wheat by doubling the number of mandis in the Corona period.
MLA Gurpreet Singh and Acting District President Subhash Chander were also present on the occasion.
