Farmers Movement Archive

Brakes on Punjab Cong’s march against farm laws

Chandigarh: To protest against the Centre’s farm laws, a large number of Congress workers led by the party’s state president Sunil Jakhar, ministers and party MPs took out a march from the Congress Bhawan towards Punjab Raj Bhawan on Friday but were stopped by police with heavy barricading. Addressing the protesters, Jakhar alleged that the Centre was behaving in an “absolutely arrogant manner” and did not have any respect for democratic practices and public opinion. “It is the arrogance of this government that is preventing it from repealing the laws which have been outrightly rejected by the farming community across the country,” he said, while warning against the prolonged stalemate on the issue. He claimed that constitutional institutions had been set up and strengthened by the Congress after a long struggle and now the BJP was trying to undermine them all as it did not value or have any respect for them. “The way the central government was responsible for pushing our soldiers into a death trap in the Galwan heights... this government is pushing our farmers to death,” he said. The Congress leaders said it was not just the farmers, but every section of the society was feeling agitated over the three controversial agricultural laws which may eventually end up compromising the country’s food security.

The Times of India

2021-01-16

Chandigarh