Farmers Movement Archive

Tomar sheds ‘pretense’ of honesty: Amarinder

Chandigarh: Reacting to Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s statement, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh expressed shock at what he termed “atrocious lies” over the state and Congress party’s stand on the controversial farm bills. He accused the BJP leader of “shedding even the pretense of fairness and honesty in pursuit of his party’s demonic agenda”. “In his desperation to promote the BJP-led NDA government’s conspiracy to ruin the farmers, Tomar had thrown all proprietary to the winds, spreading disinformation against the Congress in general, and him in particular, by peddling shameless falsehoods,” he said. Terming Tomar’s latest remarks a pack of “outrageous lies”, he said the minister’s entire statement, as part of a reported interview, was nothing more than unsubstantiated allegations, false claims and deceitful verbal assurances, which provided neither any basis nor any reason for trust or belief. On Tomar’s question as to “why did he (Amarinder) keep it in his manifesto that APMC will be changed”, Amarinder said it was obvious that the minister had not even read the Punjab Congress 2017 manifesto. The manifesto had clearly promised that “Updation of APMC Act will be done to ensure direct access of farmers to the national and international markets through digital technology without tinkering with the existing MSP system” and “Government of India will not be allowed to tinker with the existing MSP system. Instead they will be pursued to effectively implement MSP for other crops i.e. maize, pulses also. Further, it had stated that agriculture marketing will be upgraded and digitised with a complete ban on utilisation of Mandi Board Funds for purposes other than agriculture marketing.” Amarinder noted that there was a difference between changing the APMC for the better, which the Congress manifesto clearly promised in detail, and destroying the tried and tested APMC system to benefit a few corporate cronies, which the BJP-led Government’s new farm Bills were designed to do. Even the Congress 2019 LS poll manifesto also categorically stated that MSP would be protected at all costs and that thousands of markets/mandis would be set up by the state governments to provide easy access to farmers for profitable sale of their produce, the chief minister pointed out. “Tell me one place in which your three bills have made any such promise to the farmers,” he dared Tomar, accusing the minister for spreading brazen lies in an attempt to fool the farmers. “If the minister is so sincere about the welfare of the farmers, why does he not get the Bills amended to incorporate categorical and clear commitments by the Centre on retaining the MSP as well as the mandi system,” asked Amarinder.

The Times of India

2020-09-25

Chandigarh