Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
‘Anti-farmer’: Cong asks for withdrawal of laws
Delegation of senior leaders led by Rahul Gandhi meets Prez to demand special session of Parliament
A delegation of senior Congress leaders met President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday to demand a special session of Parliament to repeal three agriculture reform laws, with former party president Rahul Gandhi attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the contentious legislation.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from northern India, have camped on the borders of Delhi since November 26 to protest against the laws they say will weaken their bargaining power and leave them at the mercy of powerful agribusinesses.
Eleven Opposition parties also released a statement and termed as “baseless” Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark that Opposition leaders were lying to the farmers and misleading them. The statement also expressed solidarity with protesting farmers.
The BJP rejected the charges and accused the Congress of using farmers for politicking.
In the afternoon, Gandhi; leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad; and party leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury; met Kovind and handed over a memorandum signed by 20 million farmers seeking withdrawal of the three laws.
“We told the President that the new agri laws are antifarmer. The farmers and labourers will suffer due to this,” Gandhi said after the meeting. “I want to tell the PM that farmers are not going back home until the laws are taken back. The government should convene a joint session of Parliament and repeal them,” he added. During the march to Rashtrapati Bhavan, Delhi Police detained Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other leaders and took them to Mandir Marg police station for violating prohibitory orders after they held a sit-in protest outside the party office at 24, Akbar Road. Rahul Gandhi, Azad and Chowhury were allowed to proceed.
Three Congress-ruled states -Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh -- have passed bills bypassing the central laws 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.
Gandhi said all Opposition parties stood in solidarity with farmers and alleged that Modi wanted to transfer the wealth of ordinary people to crony capitalists. “Whoever will try to stand against him will be called terrorist —be it farmers, labourers and even if [RSS chief] Mohan Bhagwat stands against him, he too will be called a terrorist. Anyone trying to take power from him will be dubbed anti-national,” he said.