Punjab Congress president and the party nominee for Gurdaspur bypoll Sunil Jakhar on Thursday said that the farming community had been completely side-lined by the Modi Government, which had ruined the country’s agrarian economy with its anti-farmer policies, with no farmer leader in the lok Sabha to protect their rights.
Jakhar, addressing a series of meetings in Gurdaspur, Dera Baba Nanak and Batala, said that in the absence of any representative in the lower House, the farmers found themselves being completely ignored by the central government in important decisions, including Goods and Services Tax (GST).
“The Modi Government had imposed GST on tractors and even atta without consulting the farmers, who are already burdened by farm loans,” said Jakhar, promising to fight for the rights of the farming community in the lok Sabha.
“As a farmer myself, I can well understand the plight of the community, who are being cheated of their hard-earned money by the Centre which is only promoting the welfare of corporate houses…I wonder how (Parkash Singh) Badal, also a farmer, failed to understand the problems of the farmers and take them up with the Modi government during his chief ministerial tenure,” said Jakhar.
Vowing to raise the voice of all sections of the society in the Parliament, Jakhar said that the erstwhile Badal government in Punjab, and now the Modi government at the Centre, only believed in filling their own coffers at the cost of the common people.
“While Modi wears a Rs 4.5 crore suit, common man is only worried about arranging Rs 450 for his child’s school fee,” he added.