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Farmers misguided by Oppn, laws fulfil their demands: PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday attacked opposition parties and farmers’ organisations spearheading protests against three new laws enacted by his government
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday attacked opposition parties and farmers’ organisations spearheading protests against three new laws enacted by his government to open up trade in agriculture, saying farmers were being misled about the reforms.
Modi expressed surprise at the protests triggered by the reforms his government introduced in September. Some opposition parties and farmers’ unions had all along demanded such measures, which couldn’t be implemented in the past, he said at Dhordo in Kutch, Gujarat.
“The farmers are being misled about the agricultural reforms. They are being fooled into believing that others will occupy their lands,” Modi said in Hindi. “These reforms are exactly the same that farmers’ organisations and even the opposition have been asking over the years,” he added.
A massive farmers’ protest was set off by three laws pushed through by the government in September that allow agribusinesses to trade with minimal regulation, permit traders to stockpile large quantities of food commodities for economies of scale and lay down new contract farming rules. Farmers say the new rules favour big corporations to whom they will lose business and gradually end the system of state-set minimum prices. Protesters decided to call off further negotiations on December 8 after a meeting with home minister Amit Shah, claiming a stalemate. Farmers, mainly from north Indian states, have massed at the entry points to the national capital.
Reacting to Modi’s comments, farmers’ unions camping on Delhi’s borders accused the government of lacking any sympathy for the farming community.
“We elected the PM and gave him the power to speak and yet he didn’t speak for us in the past 20 days,” said Yudhvir Singh Sehrawat, general secretary of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Tikait),
Modi was in Kutch to lay the foundation stone for the world’s largest hybrid renewable energy park, a desalination plant and a fully automated milk processing and packaging plant. Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani accompanied him.
In his speech, the Prime Minister said: “Those in the opposition and misleading farmers today were all for these very reforms during their rule, but they could not take a decision. Today, when the country has taken a historical step, they are misleading the farmers.”
He added, “The government of India is always committed to the welfare of the farmers and we will keep on reassuring the farmers and addressing their concerns.”
Modi interacted with local farmers, including Sikh cultivators who have been living near the Indo-Pakistan border in Kutch since Independence. Some 5,000 Sikh families live in and around the Lakhpat region. He also met representatives of a local self-help group. The Gujarat chief minister was also present.
Asking researchers to look at Kutch as a case study, the Prime Minister recalled the devastating 2001 earthquake in the desert district and said the people had overcome the disaster to transform iit into one of the country’s fastest developing regions.
“Everyone rose from the destruction caused by the quake and see where they have brought Kutch,” he said, and referred to the renewable energy park he launched. It is one of the world’s biggest renewable energy farms with a capacity to generate up to 30,000 MW of power.
“Gujarat was among the earliest to work on strengthening solar energy capacities. Today, Kutch has the world’s largest hybrid renewable energy park. It is almost as big as Singapore and Bahrain. It is built on 70,000 hectares of land, larger than many big cities in the country,” the Prime Minister said.
He added that India featured in the top three among 144 countries in the Clean Energy Investment rankings. Modi said: “The country has shown a path to the entire world and is leading the fight against climate change.”
Remembering Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on his 70th death anniversary, the Prime Minister said Patel’s statue, built in Kevadia in Gujarat’s Narmada district, was a source of inspiration for the people of the country.
