Farmers Movement Archive

‘Price hike, farm laws systematic attack on farmers’: RPN Singh

HAZARIBAG: Over 2,000 tractors and nearly 50,000 people from different parts of the state took part in the tractor rally organised by Congress, a ruling alliance member, against the farm laws, here on Saturday. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Saturday's rally is far bigger than the first such protest organised by the grand old party in Santhal Pargana last month. The Jharkhand in-charge of the party, RPN Singh, who flew down from Delhi on Friday to attend the rally, claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government at the Centre has taken a dubious stand against the farmers. Addressing the rally, he said, "On one hand, he (Modi) says that the government wants to double the farmers' income but on the other, petrol and diesel prices have sky-rocketed so much that they are nearing Rs 100 per litre. Diesel is an important component of farming as it is needed power tractors and generators to plough fields, irrigate them and harvest the produces among others. Can the poor farmers afford such high prices?" Singh further said, “Price hike is Narendra Modi government's systematic attack on the farmers and their community to destabilize them. Above that, the three farm laws are brought in in the name of reforms. They not reforms but a move to privatize agriculture and give the sector to the capitalists. It is the reason why the farmers across the country are opposing the laws tooth and nail. Congress is committed to fighting for you -- both in Parliament and on the streets -- till the laws are rolled back to save the annadata (food provider) of the country." Addressing party MLAs, workers and supporters, who came from block to state levels, Singh said, "When Congress was in power, we waived off farm loans amounting to Rs 77,000 crore across the country. What the NDA government is doing now is a total mockery in the name of farm reforms. On BJP's charge that the tractor rallies are being held with tractors borrowed from showrooms without the genuine farmers, he said, "It exposes the mentality of the saffron party who always works for their corporate friends likes Adanis and Ambanis." State Congress president and finance minister Rameshwar Oraon, who conceptualized the rally here, said all ranks and files of the party worked for days to make the rally a grand success. Stating that Congress has always worked to strengthen farmers since Independence, he said, “Since the days of late PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, agriculture was the core agenda of Congress governments. Late PM Indira Gandhi was the first to introduce the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat and paddy in 1966. In Jharkhand, soon after the grand alliance government came in 2020, it has fulfilled the promise by waiving farm loans amounting to Rs 2,000 crores. We will give more relief to farmers in the upcoming state budget.” State ministers Badal Patralekh (agriculture), Alamgir Alam ( rural development) and former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay are among those who addressed the rally.

The Times of India

2021-02-21

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