BJP open to talks with agitating farmers, says Union Minister Piyush Goyal in Punjab’s Amritsar

GS Paul

Amritsar, May 25

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was open to talks with agitating farmers to resolve farm issues.

This was stated by Union Minister Piyush Goyal, who was here to campaign in favour of party candidate Taranjit Singh Sandhu for the Amritsar seat in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. He also paid obeisance at the Golden Temple along with BJP leader Maninderjit Singh Sirsa and local leaders.

Appealing farmers to shun the path of agitation, he invited them to get their issues resolved through dialogue.

Goyal, who was one of the members of the Centre Government’s panel that had held discussion with various representatives of farmer unions earlier, said the preliminary discussion between both the sides were held on positive note but could not reach any conclusion due to miscommunication.

“I appeal to all farm unions to remove this miscommunication through dialogue. Our doors are open for farmers to hold discussion on farm issues. BJP’s priority has always been to strategise the policies to safeguard their interest only, but a section of farmers might be unaware of the factually correct picture or were misguided. We offered them enhanced MSP against their produce and it was applicable. During a series of meetings, suggestions emerged but the calculation they came up with could adversely damage their interest, especially the Punjab farmers, in future,” Goyal said.

Speaking on the drug menace, he said the BJP intends to make Punjab a drug-free state. “We will set up a multi-dimensional task force involving security agencies to make the state drugs free,” he said.

Goyal said India was a developing country and the BJP aimed to make Punjab, especially Amritsar, to be part of this progress. He blamed that the existing regime of the state had been a roadblock.

Citing an example, he claimed that Punjab lagged to be the part of the PM MITRA multi-crore textile park scheme as the state government could not revert with a concrete proposal for offering infrastructure for the project.

“It required at least 1,000 acres of land to set up a textile park to increase investment, promote innovation, create job opportunities and ultimately make India a global hub for textile manufacturing and exports. The Punjab Government did not send us a complete proposal on the basis of which it could be considered. The Tamil Nadu Government furnished the requisite and got the project”, he said.

Striking an emotional cord, Goyal said, “Gurpurb and ‘Veer Bal Divas’ were commemorated on a global level Under the BJP-led Central Government. It also permitted the management to accept international donations at the Golden Temple through Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010.”

For Amritsar, he said, “We want to establish good connectivity and logistics, provide infrastructure for international bilateral trade, and exploit the local skill of Amritsar to take their talent on the global level. This will boost the economy of the region”, he said while clarifying that the Attari-Wagah trade was stopped from the Pakistan side.