Farmers Movement Archive

Punjab BJP to reach out to farmers on agri ordinances

JALANDHAR: Realising that they are in tough perception battle in Punjab over the recent ordinances on agriculture marketing, BJP state unit has decided to reach out to individual farmers through a personal contact programme. So far, BJP’s alliance partner the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) was trying to defend the Union government on issue but the political rhetoric has been going against the move with various farmer unions and the Congress taking an aggressive stance. Addressing a press conference here on Friday, BJP national vice-president Avinash Rai Khanna said Punjab BJP would be launching an awareness drive and would go to each village in the state and make farmers aware of the truth about these ordinances through personal contact programme. As SAD’s support base mainly comes from farmers, any loss for the latter would directly hit prospects of BJP also. Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has, meanwhile, managed to take different farmers’ unions on board. Launching the offensive against the Congress on the issue, Khanna on Friday, “We want to remind that the Congress was in power for 10 long years and Manmohan Singh did not bother to implement the Swaminathan report on agriculture. BJP has taken the considerations and suggestions of the long-forgotten report and tried its best to come up with plans to address the duress in the agrarian sector”. He said that Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar and AAP MP Bhagwant Mann were resorting to false propaganda on the issue and resorting to lies. “Actually, the Congress and AAP have nothing to show on what they have done for the agriculture sector and are now in a desperate situation. They are thus misleading farmers,” the BJP senior functionaries said. “They are creating fear among farmers on MSP. We are very clear that MSP would stay and procurement of farmers’ produce would also continue,” he assured.

The Times of India

2020-07-04

Chandigarh