New Delhi [India], September 25 (ANI): Farmer unions and political parties across the country are participating in ‘Bharat Bandh‘ on Friday to protest against the farm Bills that were recently passed by the parliament.
While Punjab and Haryana will continue to witness the most prominent protests, the bandh will also see participation from farmer unions in Bengaluru, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha among several other states.
Along with the ‘Bharat Bandh‘, the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee in Punjab also announced the three-day “rail roko” agitation till September 26 to lodge their protest. Thirteen pairs of trains were also short-terminated as a precautionary measure. Train routes to Punjab are being avoided.
An additional police personnel was deployed in several parts, including the Delhi-Haryana border where members of the Bhartiya Kisan Union blocked roads.
Political parties like the Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar, Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and several others have criticised the three Bills that were passed in Parliament on Sunday.
The Shiromani Akali Dal also held a protest in Amritsar on Friday after party leader and Lok Sabha MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the Union Cabinet to display her party’s opposition to the three Bills.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav lent a hand in Patna by driving a tractor in the protest, saying “The Farm Bills are against farmers. The government had said that they will double farmers’ income by 2022 but these Bills will make them poorer. The agriculture sector has been corporatised.”
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had earlier announced that Section 144 would not be imposed on farmers while carrying out protests. He appealed to the farmers to strictly maintain law and order, and adhere to all COVID-19 safety protocols while participating in the protests.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who had earlier slammed the Modi government over these Bills, also tweeted in support of the bandh saying, “A flawed GST destroyed MSMEs. The new agriculture laws will enslave our farmers,” with the hashtag #ISupportBharatBandh.
According to the Centre, these Bills will help small and marginal farms by allowing them to sell their produce outside mandis and sign agreements with agri-business firms and doing away with stock-holding limits on key commodities.
The Farmers‘ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 were passed by Parliament on Sunday.
New agriculture laws will enslave farmers: Rahul Gandhi
Attacking the Centre over the agriculture sector reform Bills passed by the Parliament, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that these would “enslave our farmers” and extended support to the call for ‘Bharat Bandh‘.
Several organisations today are holding nationwide protests and “chakka jam” against the three farm Bills passed by the Parliament.
“A flawed GST destroyed MSMEs. The new agriculture laws will enslave our Farmers. #ISupportBharatBandh,” Gandhi’s tweet read.
Earlier today, party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too had supported the call for ‘Bharat Bandh‘ through a tweet.
“The MSP will be snatched from farmers. Through contract farming they will be forced to be made into slaves of the billionaires. They will neither get the right prices, nor respect. The farmer will be turned to a worker on his own fields. BJP’s agriculture bills makes one remember the rule of East India Company. We will not let this injustice happen.#BharatBandh,” she tweeted (roughly translated from Hindi).
Farm Bills: SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia attends protest in Amritsar
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Friday attended a protest in Amritsar against farm Bills that were recently passed in Parliament.
Visuals from the site showed Majithia among hundreds of protestors, raising slogans against the Bills.
Several other parts of the country, including Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Karnataka also saw similar agitations as farmer unions and political parties participated in the nation-wide ‘Bharat Bandh’.
On September 17, SAD leader and Lok Sabha MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the Union Cabinet, displaying her party’s opposition to the Bills.
Reforms in agriculture will benefit small and marginalized farmers most: PM Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that reforms in agriculture will benefit small and marginalized farmers the most.
Speaking to party workers via video conferencing on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Deendayal Upadhaya, Prime Minister Modi said, “The reforms in agriculture will benefit most to small and marginal farmers. 85 out of 100 are farmers belong to this category and they are happy. For the first time, they got an option on the price of their produce. There is a tradition of selling in Mandis if a farmer wants he can sell there else outside Mandis. Farmers can sell their produce as per his choice.”
The Prime Minister appealed to all BJP karyakartas to reach out to farmers on the ground and inform them using simple language about the importance and intricacies of the new farm reforms and how these will empower them. “Our ground connect will bust the lies and rumours being spread in the virtual world,” the Prime Minister said.
PM Modi said, “Previous governments used to make a complicated web of promises and laws which the farmers or labourers could never understand. Even after increasing production, the income of the farmers did not increase but their loans kept increasing. However, the BJP-led NDA government has constantly attempted to change this situation and has introduced reforms for the welfare of farmers.”
“In the last few years, the NDA government has made full efforts to connect farmers with banks. Over Rs 1 lakh crores were transferred to over 10 crore farmers under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. Our effort is to provide KISAN credit cards to more and more farmers so they can avail loans easily,” he added.
Speaking on the founder of Jana Sangh, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya, Modi said, “I was not lucky to have seen Pandit Deendayal Uppadhaya Ji in person but his thoughts, the path shown by him, and his ideology give us inspiration and energy. As a country, to make India better, Deendayal ji’s contribution will inspire generations to come. For BJP workers it is the path which he has shown that is encouraging and inspiring.” (ANI)
