JOIN USModi a puppet of Adani, Ambani; will scrap farm laws if elected to power: Rahul Gandhi
After visiting the gang rape victim’s family in Hathras, Rahul Gandhi on Sunday embarked on a three-day ‘Kheti Bachao Andolan’ in Punjab, with a promise to scrap the contentious farm reform laws if the Congress is elected to power at the Centre.
With Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar in the driver’s seat, Rahul and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh rode a tractor Badhni Kalan village in Moga district of Punjab and assured the agitating farmers that the Congress would stand by them through thick and thin.
Several farmers’ organisations have been protesting the three farm sector laws enacted during the recent Parliament session, apprehending that the “reforms” may sound the death knell for the time-tested minimum support price regime and procurement of food grains through the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee markets.
“We are with you and will not step back… the day the Congress comes to power, we will scrap these three black laws and throw them in the waste paper basket,” Rahul told a farmers’ rally in Badhni Kalan village.
The former Congress president admitted that there could be flaws in the MSP regime and the APMC system.
“But that does not mean you destroy the system as farmers will have no protection left. There is a need to reform the system,” he said.
In a scathing attack on the BJP government, Rahul said that a handful of industrialists are eyeing the land and income of farmers, and for them, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is clearing the hurdles.
“You remember the puppet shows of the old days, someone pulls the strings from behind. This is not the Modi government. It is the government of Adani and Ambani,” Rahul said.
Rahul slammed the Modi government for bringing in the three farm sector laws in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“What was the hurry? If they wanted to bring the laws, there should have been a detailed discussion in Parliament. If farmers are happy with the laws, then why are they protesting,” Rahul asked.
A high-point of the three-day agitation was the presence of former Punjab Minister Navjyot Singh Sidhu, who had quit the government following differences with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.