Farmers Movement Archive

Only Modi or Shah can resolve stalemate over farm laws: SKM leader Rajewal

Patiala Prominent Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said on Thursday that any solution to the stalemate over the contentious farm laws of the Centre can be resolved only when Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Union home minister Amit Shah were willing to do so. “All other Union ministers and bureaucrats are rubber stamps and they do not have any power to take decisions on farmers’ issues,” Rajewal added, at a seminar on the three contentious farm laws and the agrarian crisis in Punjab at Punjabi University on Thursday. Punjab Khet Majdoor Union general secretary Lachhman Singh Sewewala said farm labourers would bear the brunt if the laws were implemented. Agriculture expert Devinder Sharma said the Centre was forcing those agricultural acts and reforms, which had been completely rejected and failed globally, on all Indians. “We all failed as a society in understanding the farmer’s plight. Farmers are sitting at borders fighting for not only themselves but for us too,” Sharma said, adding that instead of corporatisation and privatisation of agriculture, co-operative model was far more beneficial. Noted economist Sucha Singh Gill seconded views of Sharma on co-operative model of agriculture and farming needed to be turned into a financially viable and profitable enterprise. State president of BKU (Ugrahan) Joginder Singh said the ongoing protest was not the outcome of any agriculture crisis or economic crisis, but a political crisis in the country. “I advise researchers and experts to fight for the farmers on the ground, carrying fact-based research, with them,” he added. Punjabi University vice-chancellor Arvind and Anupama, coordinator of the seminar, also addressed the gathering.

Hindustan Times

29-10-2021

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