18 September 2020, Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday slammed the farm legislations being forced on to the nation by the central government as part of the `Destroy Farmers, Destroy Punjab’ (Kisan maaru, Punjab maaru) conspiracy of the BJP-led NDA, of which the Akalis continue shamelessly to be a part at the cost of their own state and its people.
“I don’t know what enmity the BJP and the Akalis have with Punjab and why they are out to destroy us,” said the Chief Minister while launching the Virual Kisan Mela of the Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana. The launch was held with virtual connectivity at 100 locations and participated by farmers, farmer representatives and other stakeholders, including ministers, MLAs and PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar.
Warning again that the legislations will lead to growing angst among the people in the border state, thus giving Pakistan the opportunity to stoke more fires, Captain Amarinder said the anti-farmer move will spoil the `abo hawa’ (environment) of Punjab. Delhi has to rethink on this issue, he stressed, adding that the legislations would undo the sacrifices made by Punjab and its farmers over 65 years to make India self-sufficient in food.
Accusing the Akalis of playing their own political games in this entire affair, Captain Amariner asked the Badals why the SAD had failed to stand with the Punjab government on these Bills and even on the critical water issue. “Did you not think even once what will happen to Punjab without agriculture and without water?” he asked the Akalis, pointing out that with the SYL issue hanging over the state, the situation was perilous and the SAD had only contributed to the crisis by supporting the farm ordinances.
Strongly opposing the legislations, the Chief Minister also trashed the Centre’s guarantee of MSP not being tampered with, saying it was a Constitutional guarantee given by Parliament, which, in fact, the incumbent government at the Centre was trying to destroy with their brute majority. Even the MSP already announced on items like Maize is not being given to the farmers, he noted, questioning the sincerity of the Government of India.
Categorically rejecting BJP and SAD claims that Punjab was on board with the farm ordinances, the Chief Minister made it clear that the issue of any such ordinances or new laws on agriculture was never discussed at any of the meetings in which his government was represented at the high-powered committee set up by the Centre on agricultural reforms.
The Chief Minister lauded the role of PAU in making India self-sufficient in food grains and said while the Kisan Mela was being held virtually for the first time in its history, on account of the prevailing pandemic, the research university’s support to the farmers amid the pandemic was appreciable.
