PM, ministers should sleep on floor till farmers out in cold: Ravneet Singh Bittu

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 27

Ludhiana Member of Parliament Ravneet Singh Bittu  launched a scathing attack on the Centre on Sunday for its “stubbornness” over the farm laws and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his entire cabinet should sleep on the floor till the time farmers are out in the cold protesting.

Addressing reporters at a press conference the Congress arranged for its Punjab leaders who have been sitting in a dharna at Jantar Mantar for 20 days, Bittu said the farmers would consider trusting the prime minister if he repealed at least two of the three controversial laws before the December 29 meet with the farmers unions.

“The government should stop being so obstinate and should repeal the laws on electricity dues and stubble burning penalty,” Bittu said flanked by Khadoor Saheb MP JS Gill and Punjab Congress MLAs Kulbir Jira and Ravinder Amla, who have been staging a dharna at Jantar Mantar for days in support of farmers.

Bittu said the farmers were very unhappy and their sons who are guarding the Borders are “asking daily when the PM will send their parents home.”

“What do you want? The sons of these farmers are guarding our Borders.

They are asking when will PM send our parents home. Else they will take leave and come home. Punjab and Haryana giving soldiers to defend the borders and food to fill the granaries and what age you doing? You are killing Punjabis at the border also and here also,” said Bittu.

He accused the government of leaving farmers in the lurch — “you don’t want to let him live or die,” he said asking the PM and all cabinet ministers to sleep on floors while farmers agitate on Delhi borders.

JS Gill said Sushant Rajput suicide caused so much furore nationally while the death by suicide of Baba Ram Singh killed didn’t cause any flutter.

“Value of every life should be the same,” Gill said adding that the PM will not become small by retracting the laws.

Admission of fault is a courageous thing to do, he said.

“You won’t lose if you retract. Acknowledgment of wrong doing is courageous. You will become bigger by conceding. They must realise that the farmers of Punjab and Haryana who were divided previously stand united due to farm laws,” Gill said.

Gill also attacked the BJP governments registering cases against protesting farmers in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

“The farmers are not afraid of these cases. PM must repeal laws,” he said with Bittu and Jira asking why the PM did not speak of farmers in his Mann ki Baat, the last edition this year.

Bittu also said there was no dearth or money for farmers as NRIs from Punjab have a lot of money to support them.