Expressing shock at the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s atrocious lies over Punjab’s and the Congress party’s stand on the controversial farm bills, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday said that the BJP leader had clearly shed even the pretense of fairness and honesty in pursuit of his party’s demonic agenda.
In his desperation to promote the BJP-led NDA government’s conspiracy to ruin the farmers, Tomar had thrown all propriety to the winds, spreading disinformation against the Congress in general, and him in particular, by peddling shameless falsehoods, said Capt Amarinder.
Reacting to Tomar’s latest remarks on the issue, the Chief Minister termed it a pack of outrageous lies. “The entire statement of the Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister, as part of a reported interview, was nothing more than unsubstantiated allegations, false claims and deceitful verbal assurances, which provided neither any basis nor any reason for trust or belief,” said Capt Amarinder.
On Tomar’s question as to ‘why did he (Captain Amarinder) keep it in his manifesto that APMC will be changed’, the Chief Minister said that it was obvious that the Minister had not even read the Punjab Congress 2017 manifesto.
The manifesto had clearly promised that “updation of APMC Act will be done to ensure direct access of farmers to the national and international markets through digital technology without tinkering with the existing MSP system” and “Government of India will not be allowed to tinker with the existing MSP system”, he pointed.
He said that instead, they will be pursued to effectively implement MSP for other crops, that is Maize, Pulses also. Further, it had stated that Agriculture Marketing will be upgraded and digitized with a complete ban on utilization of Mandi Board Funds for purposes other than Agriculture Marketing, he added.
Capt Amarinder noted that there was a difference between changing the APMC for the better, which the Congress manifesto clearly promised in detail, and destroying the tried and tested APMC system to benefit a few corporate cronies, which the BJP-led Government’s new farm Bills were designed to do.
Even the Congress 2019 Lok Sabha poll manifesto also categorically stated that MSP would be protected at all costs and that thousands of markets or mandis would be set up by the State Governments to provide easy access to farmers for profitable sale of their produce, the Chief Minister pointed out asking him to tell “one place in which your three Bills have made any such promise to the farmers”.
Tomar’s tirade of fictions against the Punjab Government and the Congress party have exposed the Centre’s desperation to enforce the new laws on the farmers, by hook or by crook, the Chief Minister said.
“If the Minister is so sincere about the welfare of the farmers, why does he not get the Bills amended to incorporate categorical and clear commitments by the Centre on retaining the MSP as well as the Mandi system,” asked Capt Amarinder.
The fact was that the Central Government had every intention of dismantling the MSP regime as well as the existing procurement system, and handing over the entire farm trade business to private players, and eventually even withdrawing the food subsidy on which lakhs of poor in the country are dependent for survival, he added.
ANY ATTEMPT TO HARM FARMERS’ INTERESTS TO BE OPPOSED TOOTH AND NAIL: MANPREET
Maintaining that the Punjab Government will soon challenge the draconian agriculture bills in the Apex Court, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal on Thursday said that the Congress has always stood for protecting the interests of Punjab and Punjabis. “Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has saved the waters of the State during his last tenure,” he said adding that every step will be taken to secure the farmers' interests.
Assuring the state’s farmers that Punjab Government would remain committed and duty-bound to safeguard their interests, Manpreet said that the fight against anti-farmers Agriculture Bills will continue till our last breath.
Manpreet said that the farm ordinances, which have been recently passed by the Parliament, were primarily aimed at lifting the safety cover in the form of Minimum Support Price (MSP), thereby ruining the food growers of the country. As a fact of the matter, the bills will severely affect not only farmers but every Punjabi, he said.
Urging all the Punjabis to act wisely in this hour of crisis, Manpreet said that Punjabis will not accept any such move that aims to harm farmers’ interests, and the Punjab Government will vehemently oppose these malicious attempts of BJP-led Union Government. He categorically said that no one will be allowed to harm the interests of farmers at any cost.
Slamming the Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal for shedding crocodile tears over the issue, Manpreet said that they are answerable to people as to why they were hand in glove with every anti-Punjab decision of the BJP. “Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who had recently resigned from the Union Cabinet, has not even uttered a single word against BJP and its Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.