Cong stands by farmers in fight for livelihood
The Congress working Committee on Friday announced three-phased demonstrations and conventions in support of the farmers in their decisive fight for lives and livelihood and adopted a resolution calling upon the Modi government to forthwith accept their only one demand to repeal the three objectionable farm laws.
The first phase of the Congress stir will be demonstrations at the block level across the country before February 10, followed by protests and conventions at district headquarters before February 20, culminating into the massive state level conventions in all state capitals on February 28, AICC general secretary KC Venugopal told a Press conference in Delhi after a virtual CWC meet of over 3 hours through video conferencing.
Its resolution says the laws impinge upon the Constitutional rights of the states and constitue the first step in dismantling the three pillars of the edifice of the farm security built up over the past decades — MSP, Public Procurement and Public Distribution System (PDS).
It asserts the agrarian laws did not pass the test of Parliamentary scrutiny as they were bulldozed by muzzling the voice of the Opposition, particularly in the Rajya Sabha where they were passed by a voice vote in an unprecedented fashion just because the government had no requisite majority on the floor to get them passed.
The resolution slammed the govt for continuing to side-step, malign, deceive and hoodwink the farmers by attempting to tire out the farmers, intimidate them and divide them. "Let the BJP govt understand one unequivocal truth — India's farmers shall neither bow down, nor will be cowed down.
In another resolution, the CWC appealed to people to come forward without hesitation to get a vaccine shot. Expressing concern over the lack of clarity about availability of the Covid-19 vaccine for India's population and no timeline by the government for vaccination beyond the first 3 crore people.
It also expressed its dismay over reports of the vaccine being sold in open market at Rs2,000 for two dossages per head and asked the government to explicitly and publicly declare a clear policy in this regard. It wanted a free-of-cost vaccine provided to India's under-privileged, disadvantaged and marginalised sections, particularly SCs, STs, OBCs and the poor.