New Delhi: Continuing the pressure on the NDA government over the three new agriculture-related laws, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that the Centre’s “assault” on the farmers would lead to ruination of the country.
He however warned the Centre that the agitating farmers would not be scared into submission on these “black laws”.
Rahul Gandhi was addressing a rally here on the second day of his three-day ‘Kheti Bachao Yatra’, before he led another ‘tractor rally’ in support of the farmers protesting against these laws.
“The farmers will not be scared into submission. They will face Covid pandemic but fight for their rights on the streets of Punjab and the rest of the country,” the Congress leader warned.
Joined by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who lashed out at the Union government for what he called “destroying the time-tested farmer-arhtiya relationship” to hand over the agriculture sector to big corporates like Adanis, Rahul made it clear that the Congress would not stop fighting for the cause of farmers.
He said once these industrialists take control of food, every household would have to pay three-fold prices for the produce, leading to devastation and suffering for the entire nation.
Not only would the farmers lose their land and livelihood, others associated with the mandis and the food procurement chain would also be rendered jobless, the Congress leader claimed.
The Congress MP said that the need of the hour was to strengthen the existing system and to correct its flaws, rather than to destroy it, “which Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed bent on doing”.
“Modi is only clearing the ground for his industrialist friends to take over,” he charged.
Rahul lashed out at the BJP-led NDA government for what he called trying to finish agriculture sector after failing to generate the promised employment.
“It is not Adani who creates jobs but small businesses and MSMEs, which Modi has been ruining with his ill-conceived moves like demonetisation and GST etc,” he added.
Alleging out that for the past six years Modi had been attacking the poor with his policies, Rahul said that demonetisation diverted the common people’s hard-earned money through banks to big industrialists, and he ruined the SMEs and small traders with the Goods and Services Tax regime.
