Farmers Movement Archive

China realised PM has weakened India, says Rahul at Punjab rally

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the Chinese had dared to enter India and kill soldiers because the BJP-led Union government had weakened the nation with its ‘anti-national’ policies and actions, of which the agriculture sector laws were the latest example. “China had realised that Modi had weakened India, and had taken advantage of this to take control of 1,200 km of our land,” Mr. Gandhi told a gathering at Samana in Patiala, on the second day of his three-day ‘tractor rally’ — Kheti Bachao Yatra — in Punjab. “The Prime Minister had broken the backbone of the country, whose economic growth had plummeted from 9% under Dr. Manmohan Singh to -24%. India was going backward, which the Chinese had seen. Why else would they dare to enter our territory? How could they kill 20 of our soldiers, who were on our side of the LAC, if they did not enter India, as Modi claims?” he stated. Farmers, he said, should understand the dangerous designs of the National Democratic Alliance government as part of a deliberate and malicious agenda to destroy their lives to promote the interests of a handful of industrialists. Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh said his government would pass in the Assembly whatever resolution or bill needed to counter the Central Bills that would have a dangerous impact on the nation. “These laws will result in closure of the ‘mandis’. My government could not let the Union government do that. We will take all steps, including a Vidhan Sabha session, to counter the new legislations, and challenge them in the Supreme Court,” he added. ‘Rahul visit a sham’ Some parties, including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), termed Mr. Gandhi’s visit a sham in a bid to gain political mileage. AAP’s State unit general secretary Harchand Singh Bursat said the Congress was enacting a drama to torpedo the ongoing farmers’ struggle by holding Mr. Gandhi’s rallies in the State. The Akali Dal accused the Congress of selling the interests of farmers by facilitating the passage of the farm Bills by not standing against them in Parliament.

The Hindu

2020-10-06

Chandigarh