Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers oppose MoS, BJP state chief in Hoshiarpur

Hoshiarpur, October 7Union Minister of State (MoS) Som Parkash and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state chief Ashwani Sharma, who arrived in Hoshiarpur on Wednesday to support the new farm laws framed by the Centre, faced strong opposition from farmers.Despite tight security in place, protesting farmers reached Hotel Amber Residency, where the duo was to hold a press conference.Farmers shouted slogans against the agriculture legislations and the Central Government and surrounded the hotel. As a result, the BJP’s leaders reached the venue around one-hour late. The district administration and the police officials somehow managed to persuade the farmers to leave the venue.A large number of farmers, including Om Singh Satiana, Gurdeep Singh Khun Khun, Nambardar Manjit Singh Khun Khun, Lawrence Chaudhary, Ajib Dwivedi, Harminder Singh Harmoian, Gurnam Singh Singriwala and Jagtar Singh Bhinder, were present.Sukhbir was aware of farm Bills, says Som ParkashWhile addressing mediapersons, the MoS said, “When the Prime Minister is saying that the MSP will continue, then I don’t think that there is any reason to doubt it.” He said these laws were an important step of the government to double income of farmers.He said the Congress has no moral right to oppose the agriculture laws as Rahul Gandhi himself was not present in the Lok Sabha when the Bills were introduced.Replying to another question, he said despite the implementation of the farm laws, the mandi system will continue as before and these laws have provided another alternative to farmers to sell their produce in the open market and get higher prices.Commenting upon the opposition of the agriculture legislations by the Akalis, he said SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal had earlier spoken in favour of the farm Bills, but later started opposing it for his political interests. He said Sukhbir was aware of the outline of the Bills so how could he say that these were anti-farmer.Former national vice-president of BJP Avinash Rai Khanna, Subhash Verma and Nipun Sharma, were also present.BJP to contest 117 Vidhan Sabha seats: AshwaniBJP state chief Ashwani Sharma said Capt Amarinder Singh-led state government was opposing the Centre’s agriculture laws to cover up their failures.He claimed that the farm laws were in favour of the farmers. He said Cabinet minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot had embezzled crores of rupees from scholarships, which were meant for Dalit students and the chief minister had given him a clean chit.Sharma said the BJP would contest on 117 seats in the forthcoming Assembly elections. He said though the BJP used to contest at 23 seats earlier, they had a strong base in all the segments in the state.

The Tribune

2020-10-08