Farmers Movement Archive

Congress holds Satyagraha in Maharashtra against farm laws

As part of its ongoing protests against the new farm and labour laws passed by the Parliament last month, the Congress staged a state-wide Satyagraha on Saturday (October 31), which was commemorated as the death anniversary of India’s only woman prime minister Indira Gandhi and the birth anniversary of the country’s first deputy prime minister, late Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Senior party leader and Maharashtra unit in-charge HK Patil, state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat, ministers Nitin Raut, Vijay Wadettiwar, Yashomati Thakur and other leaders from Vidarbha participated in the main event at Sevagram Ashram in Wardha. Throat said that the Narendra Modi government was “crushing” the farmers and workers by implementing the laws. “The laws were passed in hastily without any discussion. The system of APMCs (Agriculture Produce Market Committees) will be crushed by these laws, leaving the farmers in a lurch,” he said. Patil said that the laws were enacted to extend the benefit to a handful of industrialists at the cost of the farmers’ livelihood. He said that his party will stand by the farmers and that the central government’s motive behind the enactment of the law was “suspicious”. Over the past five weeks, the party has already held a virtual farmer rally, a state-wide dharna and a social media campaign to protest against the legislations. It said in the coming days, it will hold a tractor rally to protest against the laws and its agitation will continue until the “anti-farmer” legislations were not revoked. The party has also set an aim of collecting 1 crore signatures from farmers to register their protest.

Hindustan Times

31-10-2020

City