‘Government drunk with power’: Randeep Surjewala slams PM Modi’s farm laws claim

Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, during a press conference, on Sunday, slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim of the farm laws being ‘correct’. Modi, during ‘Mann ki Baat’, said that the newly enacted farm laws have brought numerous opportunities for the farmers in India. His comments came amid the ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest march in and around the national capital.

“The prime minister’s obduracy, arrogance, and rigidity in dealing with 62 crore farmers and farm labourers of India are writ large by his insistence today in the ‘Mann ki Baat’ that the three anti-farmer, anti-agriculture laws, forcibly passed in an illegal and unconstitutional manner, by Parliament, are correct,” PTI quoted Surjewala as saying.

Also Read | ‘Farm laws have opened doors to new opportunities for farmers’: PM Modi on ‘Mann Ki Baat’

“For the prime minister to say that these three laws are absolutely right when lakhs and lakhs of farmers are sitting around Delhi agitating, demanding their withdrawal, shows that the Modi government is drunk with power and Prime Minister Modi does not care about the welfare of the farmers and farm labourers of India,” he said.

The Opposition also demanded that Prime Minister Modi should immediately announce the suspension of the three “anti-agriculture” laws.

Surjewala also hit out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for attending a political event in Hyderabad but not reaching out to farmers immediately.

Also Read: PM Modi won’t rescind farm bills, wants BJP to weather storm

“If the home minister of India has time to travel 1,200 km to Hyderabad to attend a public meeting, why does Amit Shah does not have the time to go 15 km to the borders of Delhi and talk to the agitating farmers, why is it that the agriculture minister has taken out a date of December 3 before which no conversation can be held, have they consulted an astrologer for this purpose,” the Congress leader said.

Posing several questions to the Modi government, Surjewala asked why “12,000 FIRs have been lodged against farmers” and why is that that no dialogue is taking place with them.

He accused the BJP leaders and chief ministers of branding farmers as “terrorists” and asked why is it that select TV channels “aided and abetted by the Modi government are out to prove 62 crore farmers are anti-nationals”.

Also Read | Never called farmers’ protest ‘politically motivated’: Amit Shah in Hyderabad

The three farm laws are – The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation); The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance; and Farm Services and The Essential Commodities (Amendment).

Farmers say they are apprehensive that the laws will pave way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporates.