Surjewala: Solution lies in repealing 3 ‘black’ laws
Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 17
Twenty-four farmer martyrs, a farm laws agitation that has stretched on for 21 days and counting, thousands of farmers living through freezing nights and cold days at the Delhi borders and an “arrogant” government that remains unfazed — AICC media in-charge and party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala minces no words when it comes to attacking the Modi government for failing the farmers.
Stakeholders were not consulted
The three farm laws were enacted in the boardrooms of the corporates, which are entering the agri trade market. Adani is being given licences in Panipat for constructing silos for the FCI. These laws were framed for the select corporate friends of the Prime Minister and not on the demand of farmers. Not a single farmer union demanded the enactment of these laws, no political party or stakeholder was consulted. – Randeep Singh Surjewala, Media in- Charge, AICC
Speaking to The Tribune today, Surjewala said that the solution lies in repealing the “three black laws” and starting afresh a conversation with the farmers, political parties and all stakeholders.
“Agriculture is being annihilated and the 25 lakh crore agricultural produce trade is being handed over to three-four capitalist friends of the Modi government through these laws,” he said.
Maintaining that no stakeholder was consulted on the farm laws, Surjewala alleged that these were enacted in the boardrooms of the corporates, which were entering the agri trade market. “Adani is being given licences in Panipat for constructing silos for the FCI. These laws were framed for the select corporate friends of the Prime Minister and not on the demand of farmers. Not a single farmer union demanded the enactment of these laws, no political party or stakeholder was consulted and these were brought through an ordinance in the middle of the night at a Cabinet meeting. The laws were pushed through in Parliament without a majority by suspending Congress leaders,” he said.
Dismissing claims that this is essentially a Punjab-Haryana farmer centric agitation, Surjewala sought to know if the PM was not aware that farmers in Karnataka are protesting against the farm laws as also against the land reforms Act for close to two months, that farmers in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are sitting on an agitation, those from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh have joined in at the Tikri and Singhu borders, that the NH is blocked on Jaipur side by farmers from Rajasthan and Gujarat and those from UP are staging a protest at the Ghaziabad and Palwal borders.
“This protest being limited to Punjab and Haryana is a line the BJP government is deliberately dishing out,” he said.
On whether the Congress is backing the protest in a bid to prop itself up, Surjewala said that this agitation was a BJP versus Congress issue or a BJP versus farmer contest.
