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Punjab

AAP accuses Modi government of ruining of peasantry in the country

PUNJAB NEW EXPRESS | October 14, 2020 09:22 PM

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and Delhi’s Greater Kailash MLA and chief spokesman of the party Saurabh Bhardwaj and Jarnail Singh, MLA and in charge Punjab Affairs, on Wednesday said that the three black laws being imposed on the beleaguered farming fraternity in the country by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Center, was nothing a brazen attempt to dismantle the MSP regimen, a well thought-out designed move of the government to decimate the peasantry.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday Saurabh Bhardwaj and Jarnal Singh lamented that the Modi government, which had already ‘sold off’ telecom, shipping, and a host of other government-run establishments, was hell-bent on handing over the farm sector to some of the patronised corporate honchos, leaving them rue and rant in resignation.

Saurabh Bhadwaj on the occasion said that the farmers today were facing the heat due to the anti-farmer stance of the longest serving political parties – the Congress and BJP – and their ill-conceived policies, which was why they (farmers) were left with no choices but to take the agitation route for heir legitimate rights. They were left to committing suicides, day in and day out. He said that the implementation of the three controversial laws would spell doom for the famers in the country.     

Citing an example of Punjab, Saurabh Bhardwaj said that its Malwa region, which was producing 11 lakh bales of cotton in the country, adding that the cotton growers of the region were forced to sell their produce much below the Minimum Support Price (MSP) as the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) had not yet started the procurement process. He said that cotton growers in the area were subjected to sell their produce at between Rs. 4000 to Rs. 4500 per quintal instead as against the MSP fixed by the government at 5750 per quintal. Moreover, the procurement agencies claimed that they were unable to purchase the produce due to high moisture content ranging between 10 and 12 per cent, which was double whammy for them.

The AAP leader cautioned that not only the farmers would be hit by these draconian laws but other sections of the society dependent or even non-dependent on agriculture, saying the disastrous outcome of the deadly laws would leave everyone groan under their impact.  He claimed that it was the government’s evil design to snatch away the agriculture from the farmers of the country and demolish the country’s best marketing model of Punjab and Haryana by handing it over to the private hands.

On the occasion, Punjab political affairs in charge and MLA Jarnail Singh said that by bringing in the three farm laws, the sole objective of the Government at the centre was to ruin the farmers to the hilt by strengthening the hands of the corporate houses, reducing them to mere tillers from owners of their land holdings.     

He slammed the successive state and central government ruling the country for longer spans for betraying the  farmers by acting against their interests, adding that those who played a proactive role in clearing the passage of the deadly Bills, were now pretending to the farmers’ champions and resorting to political theatrics to hoodwink the people of Punjab by staging sham protests in favour of the farmers.

He called upon the people from all walks of life to rise above their petty political or other affiliations and raise their pitch against the anti-farmers and anti-people laws being imposed through a brute force.  The need of the hour is to support the relentless struggle of the farmers and save the ‘annadata’ trapped in a paradoxical situation.

Jarnail Singh said that the government should, instead of bringing in the anti-farmer laws in a dictatorial manner by stifling the dissenting voices, enact laws which ensured MSP on all crops they (The farmers) produced. He exhorted all sections to intensify the farmers' struggle till these were reversed.

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