Farmers Movement Archive

Maharashtra Congress holds virtual rally to oppose new farm laws

As part of its ongoing protest against the recently-passed farm laws, Maharashtra Congress organised virtual ‘Save the Farmers Rally’ on Thursday evening. The party said around 50 lakh farmers participated in the rally from 10,000 villages in more than 25 districts where the arrangement of virtual platforms has been made. Calling the new laws ‘anti-farmer’, the Congress has been demanding that they be scrapped.The virtual rally saw eminent party leaders addressing six divisional areas using a virtual platform. Congress’s Maharashtra in-charge HK Patil, state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat, public works department minister and former chief minister (CM) Ashok Chavan, MP Rajiv Satav participated from Sangamner in Ahmednagar, while former CM Prithviraj Chavan addressed the rally from Kolhapur. Medical education minister Amit Deshmukh participated from Aurangabad, women and child development minister Yashomati Thakur from Amravati and energy minister Nitin Raut, dairy development minister Sunil Kedar participated from Nagpur.Patil said the Congress would compel the Narendra Modi government to withdraw the farm laws which, he claimed, would uproot the agriculture sector — the backbone of economy. He alleged that the laws were enacted to benefit a handful of industrialists who helped the Modi government in ‘dealing’ to win over MPs from opposition parties. “Modi has been against the interest of the farmers since he was the chief minister of Gujarat. The farm laws are being implemented despite the fact that they failed in Bihar after their enactment in 2006. It is an attempt of the Modi government to sell the agriculture sector like state-owned entities were sold to the industrialists,” he said.Thorat appealed to the farmers to join hands to oppose the laws and warned them of long-lasting effects if the laws are implemented. He also announced that the protest would continue till the laws were scrapped. Ashok Chavan said, “Our government will not implement the laws which are aimed to benefit a handful of industrialists. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to bring the landlord system back in the country through these laws.”Maharashtra Congress has been protesting against the laws since the past three weeks after they were passed in both the houses of parliament. After an online drive #SpeakUpForFarmers across various social media platforms on September 26, congress leaders met Maharashtra Govenor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on September 28 and demanded that the laws be scrapped. Then, on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti on October 2, the party held protest rallies in almost all the districts in the state. It has also began a signature campaign aimed at collecting 1 crore signatures from farmers within October 31.

Hindustan Times

16-10-2020

Mumbai