Agitation, recourse will be undertaken to fight ‘draconian’ farm laws: Capt Amarinder

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Khatkar Kalan, September 28

Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday vowed to fight the Centre’s malicious new agriculture Acts constitutionally and legally, asserting that he would do whatever it took to protect farmers from the “nefarious” designs of the Government of India, a press release by the state government read.

Addressing the media in Chandigarh and earlier at Khatkar Kalan, where he sat on dharna in protest against the new legislations, the Chief Minister said he would be consulting with lawyers to work out the legal course of action for challenging the unconstitutional laws in the Supreme Court. “Agitation and legal recourse will have to be undertaken simultaneously to fight these new laws and force the Union Government to rethink its decision,” he said.

Asserting that he does not want Punjab’s youth and farmers to take to arms to fight for their right to live, the Chief Minister warned that these new Bills would endanger the security of the border state of Punjab, as Pakistan’s ISI was always on the lookout for opportunities to foment trouble, the press release further read.

I along with my colleagues from @INCPunjab held a protest against Centre's Anti-Farmer Laws at Khatkar Kalan in SBS Nagar. Most of our farmers are small & marginal who will be severely impacted by these legislations. We stand by Punjab’s farmers & will do everything to oppose it. pic.twitter.com/OEbKx7qxgf

— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) September 28, 2020

“Punjab has lost 35,000 lives to terrorism in senseless violence in the past and with the unrest among the farmers spreading to other states, the entire nation would be exposed to the ISI threat,” Captain Amarinder said, adding that Pak-backed forces would try to feed on the angst in India.

Pointing out that 150 terrorists had been nabbed in Punjab in recent months with huge caches of arms and ammunition, the Chief Minister said he would not let anyone disturb the state’s peaceful atmosphere, which the new legislations had the potential to do.

Harish Rawat, AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab affairs, who was accompanying the Chief Minister, announced a signature campaign beginning October 2 to collect two crore signatures of farmers against the new farm laws. “These will be submitted to the President of India on November 14 to coincide with Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary,” he said, adding that Kisan Sammelans would also be organised to take the fight to its logical conclusion.

Slamming the treatment meted out on Punjabis and Punjab’s farmers to make big corporates like the Adanis happy, Captain Amarinder asked: “Will the Adanis subsidise food for poor Indians? These laws will spell the death-knell for the PDS system, apart from ruining Punjab and its farmers.”

Terming the new legislations as a total violation of the nation’s federal structure, the Chief Minister described the enactment of the Farm Bills as a black day for Punjab. The manner in which the laws were brought in through the Ordinances route and then pushed through Parliament without discussion was deplorable, he said, asserting that contrary to the lies being spread by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Punjab government was never once apprised of the move to bring in such Ordinances.

Slamming the Akalis for defending the Bills for months, the Chief Minister again questioned what Harsimrat Badal was doing all this time and why she did not quit the Cabinet when the Ordinances were first brought in.

“Why did the Akalis oppose us in the all-party meeting? Why did they run away from the assembly?” he asked, dismissing their hollow claims now on standing with the farmers. These claims are only meant to grab political power in Punjab, but nobody trusts them now, he said, adding that SAD’s decision to quit NDA was also the result of revolt from their own party members.

Captain Amarinder made it clear that the verbal assurances of the Centre on MSP could not be trusted. “When they can break Constitutional guarantees, who can trust their verbal assurance,” he remarked, questioning why MSP had not been made a constitutional right of the farmers in these Acts.

The Chief Minister said those sitting at the Centre clearly knew nothing about agriculture, which explained their bid to destroy the time-tested farmer-Arhtiya relations. The small farmers, whom his government had been trying to help over the past 3.5 years and who constitute more than 70 per cent of the farming community, would be the worst affected, he added.

The Chief Minister also stressed the need for all to rise above politics to fight the Centre’s dangerous laws unitedly to protect Punjab and its people, especially the farmers.

“The fight at present was between the farmers and the central government, but the fact was that all powers of the states were being usurped by the Centre. We have nothing left except excise from liquor sales, and all that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has to say is that it’s an act of God,” he quipped.

Pointing out that the Centre was asking why farmers in Punjab were protesting, he remarked: “What else should farmers do? Distribute ladoos?”

Punjab’s farmers had not only fed the nation through the years, including during the pandemic, but had also made India self-sufficient in foodgrain, said the Chief Minister, adding that with the funds flow to the Mandi Board also getting affected by these laws, the development work in villages would also come to a standstill.

PPCC President Sunil Jakhar said the battle would be a long-drawn one but Captain Amarinder Singh would protect the interests of the farmers in the same way as he had done earlier to save the state’s river waters.

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