Farmers Movement Archive

Rahul Gandhi targets Centre, says it is imposing its will and power on judiciary

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi once again targeted the central government on Tuesday and accused it of imposing its will and power on the judiciary in Delhi. Gandhi also said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government is "not allowing the judiciary to be or do what it must." "Not just courts, they do not allow discussions in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha either and drop elected governments repeatedly," Gandhi said in Mallapuram."For the first time, winning the election means losing and vice-versa," the Congress leader, who is on a two-day visit to poll-bound Kerala, said.Gandhi’s comments come a day after Puducherry chief minister V Narayanasamy resigned after falling short of the majority in the assembly. The Narayanasamy government lost the majority after five Congress and one Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) legislators resigned. Since 2019, Congress has lost power similarly in Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.It also comes in the backdrop of farmers' protests continuing for more than two months now. The farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are agitating against the contentious farm laws which were passed by the voice vote in Parliament in September last year amid uproar by opposition.The central government has projected the laws as "historic reforms" in the agriculture sector that will work in favour of farmers by removing middlemen and giving them the freedom to sell their produce anywhere in the country. However, farmers fear that it will put them at the mercy of the big corporates and will remove the Minimum Support Price (MSP).Earlier in the day, Gandhi had slammed the government for its plans to privatise railways. Terming it as a "threat to millions of poor people who travel using our railways", Gandhi said, "It is also going to create a problem for millions of employees who work for the Railways.""Railways are a fundamental part of our country. Railways do not belong to one person, they belong to the whole country. It allows millions of people to travel cheaply...I noticed in the last Budget that the government is intent on privatising this Indian asset," he also said.

Hindustan Times

23-02-2021

India