Centre arm-twisting stir backers: Navjot Sidhu

Tribune News Service

Patiala, January 15

Accusing the Narendra Modi government of misusing central agencies to target those who supported the farmers’ protest, former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said he “would continue to raise voice for the farmers”. He alleged that the Modi government was out to “finish the federal structure of governance” to promote a few corporate houses.

“What the protesters are doing is 100 per cent justified. The new farm Acts will not only kill farmers, it will also finish arhtiyas and result in an end to the public distribution system, which provides free foodgrains to 67 per cent of the poor,” Sidhu said, adding that it was wrong to term the agitating farmers anti-national or Khalistanis, when all they were demanding was the rollback of the laws.

Claiming that the Centre was responsible for rising debts of Food Corporation of India (FCI), Sidhu attributed the FCI’s attrition to the government’s policy of poor allocation. “FCI’s debt stood at Rs 91,000 crore from the time it was set up to 2014, when Modi took over. Now the debt is Rs 4 lakh crore,” he said.

He also accused the central government of providing undue help to corporate houses. “Silos are owned by a certain business group in many states. Their total storage capacity is 8.5 lakh metric tonnes. The government gave a 30-year contract to a particular company with a clause that even if a silo has only 5 per cent stock, the government would pay full rent. In addition, maximum support price (is given) to silos, which is an out of turn arrangement and an increase in rent with market rate. Why is there no such arrangement for farmers?” he questioned.

Later, a Centre-appointed committee recommended that silos be converted into procurement centres. “This will kill arhtiya system. Procurement will only be done by this certain business group. The government wants to give 25 lakh metric tonne storage that too on FCI land across the country to a corporate house,” Sidhu said. He also accused the central government of trying to reduce the number of people entitled to foodgrain from the public distribution system. “When the entire country’s stock will be controlled by one corporate, the poor will have to buy grains at prices fixed by them,” claimed Sidhu.

On his role in the state government, Sidhu said this was not the right time to talk about his own political future but “think about ways and means to strengthen the agitation led by farmers”.

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