Farmers Movement Archive

‘Captain inciting farmers to save his face for not fulfilling promises’

LUDHIANA: BJP state president Ashwani Sharma while taking a dig at chief minister Amarinder Singh and Congress government claimed that just to save his face among voters for not fulfilling the poll promises, Capt and Congress leaders are inciting the farmers against farm bills and BJP government. Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday , he said instead of maintaining peace in the state, the CM is trying to spoil the environment in the state. The BJP state president was in the city to attend a meeting with the newly appointed party team of the district. He said in the past three and a half years of the Congress rule people were asking for jobs, unemployment allowance, pension and above all a drug-free state, but Capt government had failed to give all these things to people. He said now to divert the attention of voters from all these things Amarinder was trying to fuel the farmers against the bills, which were in favour of farmers. He said they had meetings with farmers’ organisations in advance and they had shown concern about MSP and grain markets and PM Narendra Modi had cleared the air that both things would remain intact. He said these ordinances were giving power to farmers to sell their crop openly anywhere in the country if they feel they were not getting better MSP in the grain market. He also claimed that the BJP had formed a eight-member committee to talk to these farmer organisations, which were protesting against these bills. Regarding contesting elections in 2022, the BJP state president said, “It is difficult to predict the situation of 2022 at this moment but since our allies have selected their path we would contest on all 117 seats in Punjab.” Regarding Sukhbir Badal’s statement about dictatorship of the BJP in the NDA, he said they always gave respect to SAD and three months ago everybody must have listened to Sukhbir during his address on these ordinances, where he had explained the provisions to farmers. He said he was given in writing that the MSP and grain markets would still be there even after these bills. If even then if he is thinking it is dictatorship, then they cannot say anything about it. Meanwhile, state president welcomed Akali leader Davinder Verma, along with his supporters, into the BJP. He used to be associated with senior Akali Dal leader Hira Singh Gabria for a long time.

The Times of India

2020-09-30

Ludhiana