Farm legislation: Dissatisfaction of farmers can endanger peace and internal security, warns Ashwani Kumar
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 21
In a strong warning to the Narendra Modi government following the passage of three agriculture legislations, former UPA minister Ashwani Kumar on Monday said “dissatisfaction of farmers in a sensitive border state of Punjab can endanger peace and internal security”.
“The ramming through of the widely opposed farm Bills in both Houses of Parliament without debate and amidst pandemonium robs the enacted law of its democratic and moral legitimacy,” said the senior Punjab leader.
“The haste and manner in which questionable legislation has been rushed through the legislative process exposes the dysfunctionality of Parliament and intolerance to dissent by the ruling dispensation,” he added.
Kumar further said, “Insensitivity to the perspective of the agitating farmers on an issue relating to their survival and subsistence can lay the foundation of permanent alienation of the farming community and loss of faith in democratic protest as an instrument of grievance redressal.”
“In a sensitive border state of Punjab, dissatisfaction of farmers can endanger peace and internal security.
“In choosing to ignore such grave implications, and bludgeoning protests against the new law, the Central Government has not been true to the first principles of responsive and accountable governance. A government at war with its farmers has forfeited its mandate,” he added.
