Congress steps up protests against farm bills

A year after promising farm sector reforms, Congress on Sunday went all out against the Modi government's move to create more trade avenues for farmers beyond the APMC markets, raising the issue strongly from streets to Parliament.

Congress leaders opposed the two farm sector bills tooth and nail in the Rajya Sabha, dubbing it as a death warrant of farmers and accusing the BJP of misleading the farmers.

Congress leaders also hit the streets by embarking on a tractor rally of farmers from Chandigarh to Delhi to protest against the farm sector bills passed in both Houses of Parliament. The Kisan Aakrosh Tractor Rally was stopped at the Punjab-Haryana border, where the protestors faced water cannons.

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“The Kisan Aakrosh Rally is being stopped at the Haryana border, but we will continue to march ahead,” Srinivas B V, President of the Indian Youth Congress said.

A number of farmers’ organisations, including the Bharat Kisan Union, have taken to the streets, blocking rail and roads in parts of Punjab and Haryana.

Congress likened the farmers’ agitation against the Bills to the first war of Independence of 1857.

“We are not going to leave this issue. We are going to fight it out,” Congress Rajya Sabha member K C Venugopal said.

As BJP stepped up attack on the Congres, claiming that it had promised similar farm sector reforms in its party manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, senior leader Ahmed Patel hit back accusing the BJP of quoting selectively from the document.

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“We had made 22 promises regarding the farm sector, but BJP is picking up two to mislead everyone,” Patel said.

“We promised to repeal APMC Act to free agricultural trade from all restrictions but we suggested this only after providing five major safeguards for the farmer,” Patel said.

Patel said the Bills moved by the government were skewed in favor of the corporates and put farmers in peril.

He said the Congress manifesto had promised setting up small markets in every major village, a dedicated export-import policy for farm produce, replacing the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices with a National Commission on Agricultural Development and Planning among others.

Congress and other opposition members demanded that the bills be referred to the Select Committee for further scrutiny.