Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday vowed to fight the Centre’s “malicious” and “anti-national” agriculture acts constitutionally and legally, asserting that he will do whatever it takes to protect the farmers from the Central Government’s “nefarious designs”.
Capt Amarinder, addressing the media, said that he will be consulting with lawyers to work out the legal course of action for challenging the unconstitutional laws in the Supreme Court. “Agitation and legal recourse will have to be undertaken simultaneously to fight these new laws and force the Union Government to rethink its decision,” he said.
Slamming the step-motherly treatment meted out on Punjabis and Punjab’s farmers to make big corporates like the Adanis happy, Capt Amarinder asked, “Will the Adanis subsidize food for poor Indians?” These laws will spell the death-knell for the PDS system, apart from ruining Punjab and its farmers, he added.
Terming the new legislations as a total violation of the nation’s federal structure, the Chief Minister described the enactment of the Farm Bills as a black day for Punjab.
“The manner in which the laws were brought in through the Ordinances route and then pushed through Parliament without discussion was deplorable,” he said, asserting that contrary to the lies being spread by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Punjab Government was never once apprised of the move to bring in such Ordinances.
Making it clear that the Centre’s verbal assurances on MSP (minimum support price) could not be trusted, Capt Amarinder said: “When they can break constitutional guarantees, who can trust their verbal assurance…Why MSP has not been made a constitutional right of the farmers in these Acts.”
Capt Amarinder said that those sitting at the Centre clearly knew nothing about agriculture, which explained their bid to destroy the time-tested farmer-arhtiya relations. “The small farmers, whom our government has been trying to help over the past 3.5 years and who constitute more than 70 percent of the farming community, would be the worst affected,” he added.
SLAMS AKALIS FOR THEIR ROLE
Slamming the Akalis for defending the Bills for months, the Chief Minister again questioned what Harsimrat Badal was doing all this time and why she did not quit the Cabinet when the Ordinances were first brought in. “Why did the Akalis oppose us in the all party meeting? Why did they run away from assembly?” he asked, dismissing their hollow claims of now on standing with the farmers.
“These claims are only meant to grab political power in Punjab, but nobody trusts them now,” he said, adding that SAD’s decision to quit NDA was also the result of revolt from their own party members.
Stressing the need for all to rise above politics to fight Centre’s dangerous laws unitedly to protect Punjab and its people, especially the farmers, he said: “The fight, at present, is between the farmers and the Central Government, but the fact is that all powers of the states are being usurped by the Centre. We have nothing left except excise from liquor sales.”
WARNS AGAINST ISI EXPLOITING FARMERS’ ANGST TO FOMENT TROUBLE
Asserting that he does not want Punjab’s youth and farmers to take to arms to fight for their right to live, the Chief Minister warned that these new laws will endanger the security of the border state of Punjab, as Pakistan’s ISI was always on the lookout for opportunities to foment trouble. Punjab has lost 35,000 lives to terrorism in senseless violence in the past and with the unrest among the farmers spreading to other states, the entire nation would be exposed to the ISI threat, said Capt Amarinder, adding that Pak-backed forces will try to feed on the angst in India.
“ISI looks for people they can easily arm with guns and grenades. In last three years, we’ve held over 150 terrorists. Everything in Punjab was peaceful. But when your bread and butter is snatched, won’t you be furious? They become a target of ISI. What Government did is anti-national,” said Capt Amarinder.
Pointing out that 150 terrorists had been nabbed in Punjab in recent months with huge caches of arms and ammunition, the Chief Minister said that he will not let anyone disturb the state’s peaceful atmosphere, which the new legislations had the potential to do.
PUNJAB CONG ANNOUNCES SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN TO COLLECT 2 CR FARMERS’ SIGNATURES FROM OCT 2
All Indian Congress Committee’s (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs, Harish Rawat, on Monday announced a signature campaign beginning October 2 to collect two crore signatures of farmers against the new Farm Laws.
“These will be submitted to the President of India on November 14 to coincide with Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary,” he said, adding that Kisan Sammelans would also be organized to take the fight to its logical conclusion.
Describing Capt Amarinder Singh as the protector of farmers, Rawat said that the farming community was pinning its hopes on the Chief Minister to lead them in this war against the “black laws” promulgated by the Centre.
At the same time, he took a dig at the Akalis, saying that they had remained silent for a long time and were now coming to take credit for the fight for farmers’ rights.
The Chief Minister Capt Amarinder said that while Rahul Gandhi had already taken up the cudgels against the Farm Laws, the Punjab Congress would seek his support in leading a nationwide struggle against these legislations.