Chandigarh: Protests by farmers and political parties against the farm laws introduced by the Central government further intensified in Punjab. Farmers led by 31 kisan unions laid siege to rail tracks, toll plazas and power plants across Punjab. Claiming that the Narendra Modi government’s farm reform laws will leave food grain growers hungrier, the agitating peasants put up “indefinite” blockades of Reliance fuelling stations, Adani Group’s granaries at Moga, and Vedanta’s power plant at Mansa’s Banawali village.
They also cordoned the houses of BJP politicians across the state, asking for legal sanctity to the minimum support price (MSP) for all crops and its written guarantee through another bill. Akali Dal workers, led by party president Sukhbir Singh Badal, his wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal, and senior party brass held a protest march across the state to Chandigarh. Sukhbir dared BJP to show the evidence of his party’s endorsement of the three farm bills in the Parliament, as claimed by the former alliance partner.
Talking to reporters before leading the Kisan March from Akal Takht to Chandigarh, Sukhbir said, “Show our signature, show me.” His reaction came in reply to a query that former Punjab BJP president Shwait Malik had claimed that SAD(B) endorsed the farm bills in the Parliament.
Agitating farm leaders, however, have rejected Sukhbir’s offer of joint struggle to mount pressure on the Centre. Punjab general secretary of Kisan Mazdur Sangarash Committee Sarwan Singh Pandher said, “Politicians are staging demonstrations, taking out marches or staging dharnas only for their political interests and not for our benefit.”
PM acting at behest of corporates: Rahul
Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh launched a three-day tractor rally at Badhni Kalan in Moga district. Addressing a gathering, Rahul vowed to scrap these new laws when the Congress returned to power at the Centre. Alleging that the BJP-led NDA government was acting at the behest of select corporate houses to “destroy” the farmers, he said: “Modi ko Ambani aur Adani chalaate hain (Modi government is run by Ambani and Adani). What can the farmers expect from a PM who is a puppet in the hands of big corporate houses?”
He claimed the Union Government wanted to dismantle the mandi system in order to benefit the capitalists. “But we will not let that happen. We will not let them destroy the farming sector. The Congress fully backs the farmers’ agitation,” he told the gathering.
