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Govt has agreed to most demands of farmers: Ex- Punjab BJP president
The party’s state unit will conduct 700 press conferences to dispel misinformation about the laws
Facing brickbats over the controversial farm laws, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit has decided to reach out to farmers living in villages to apprise them of the benefits of the contentious farm laws and expose the ‘double standards’ of the ruling Congress regime of the state.
The party’s state unit has decided to conduct 700 press conferences in the state to dispel misinformation about the laws.
The state unit also seemed to be comfortable with throwing the ball in the Supreme Court’s court. While addressing media persons in Ludhiana, former BJP state president Rajinder Bhandari said that any decision taken by the apex body would be acceptable to the party.
While disassociating the party from Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani and showing clips of both interacting with various Congress leaders, Bhandari said that negative propaganda had been spread to malign the image of BJP leaders.
Bhandari said, “The farmer union leaders will have to show some flexibility to end the current impasse. Such attitude never works with the government especially when the government has agreed to the majority of their demands including giving in writing about the implementation of MSP for crops, subsidies on power, and withdrawal of all cases registered against farmers for burning crop residue,” said Bhandari.
He maintained that all the political parties had mutually agreed to introduce the bill to encourage private participation to boost agriculture.
Bhandari alleged that SAD and AAP were inciting innocent farmers. He also showed a video wherein Kapil Sibbal, former union minister in the Congress-led UPA government, was speaking in favour of the bill.
Showing a video of former union minister Sushma Swaraj, who had opposed the bill then, Bhandari said, “We learnt about the benefits of the bill at a later stage and decided to implement it. Policies change with time.”
He expressed regret over the deaths of farmers and the suicide by the spiritual leader at the dharna site.
“It is a personal loss. We have been urging the farmer union leaders to send the elderly and children back home. We are also pained to see the protestors sitting on the road amid this chilly weather and urge them to end the protest,” said Bhandari.
He also added that the BJP state unit had approached two union leaders before introducing the three bills in the parliament to seek their suggestions. “But they did not bother. Had they discussed their concerns with state BJP leaders then such a situation would not have arisen,” said Bhandari.
