PM Modi is doing grave injustice to farmers: Opposition leader Sonia Gandhi

A worker harvests onions on a farm near Umrana, Maharashtra, India, on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014. Dhiraj Singh | Bloomberg | Getty Images. Sketched by the Pan Pacific Agency.

NEW DELHI, Oct 2, 2020, The Hindu. Terming the recently enacted agricultural laws as ‘black laws’, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of committing grave injustice against farmers and reiterated her party’s resolve to fight against the laws and stand with the farmers, The Hindu reported.

In a video statement, released by the Congress on the occasion of the birth anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Congress chief said that the party’s workers in every Assembly segment of the country were agitating against the laws.

Separately, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is expected to take part in a tractor rally in Punjab and Haryana between October 3 and 5 to express solidarity with the farmers.

“Today is the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the biggest sympathizer of farmers, labourers and the working class people. He used to say that India’s soul lives in her villages, her agricultural fields. Today is also the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri ji who gave us the slogan Jai Jawan Jai Kisan. But today the farmers and agricultural workers are protesting against three black laws on the streets,” Ms. Gandhi said.

“Those who give their blood and toil to feed the country are now being forced to shed tears of blood by the Modi government,” she added.

The Congress chief said that while the farmers and agricultural workers had adopted a Gandhian way of protest to ensure that remunerative price for their produce was expressly mentioned in the law, the Narendra Modi government was raining lathis on them.

The news laws will not only end mandis (agricultural markets) and thereby snatch the livelihoods of small traders, but also encourage hoarding, she alleged.

“The Prime Minister is doing grave injustice to the farmers. They are being treated in an unjust manner as the government didn’t even consult them [farmers] before making new laws for them. Ignoring farmers’ interest, the government enacted these three anti-farmer black laws after talking to their few friends,” Ms. Gandhi alleged.

In a separate tweet, Mr. Gandhi too expressed his solidarity with farmers and the working class. “The hard work of our country’s labour and farmers is the best example of Atmanirbharta (self-reliance). They deserve respect and must get the right remuneration for their hard work,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted, with the slogan Jai Shramik, Jai Jawaan, Jai Kisan.

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