Chandigarh, July 20, 2022 (Yes Punjab News)
The Congress today rejected the central government committee on agriculture and MSP constituted recently, describing it as a farcical attempt that clearly aims at trivialising the serious issues concerning the agrarian crisis in the country.
“There is no mention of legal guarantee for the MSP in the terms of reference, thus defeating the very purpose of setting it up”, President All India Kisan Congress, Sukhpal Singh Khaira said here today, alleging that the purpose of the committee appears to subvert and sabotage the interests of the farmers for which they staged a protest for 378 days in the outskirts of the national capital during which about 750 farmers lost their lives and about 40,000 were slapped with false cases.
He condemned the exclusion of Punjab and Punjabi farmers from the committee, saying, “keeping Punjabi farmers, out of any agriculture/farm committee is like keeping out the soul from a body, as Punjabi farmers have given their sweat and blood for Green Revolution in the country and ensured food security to the nation when it was importing wheat from abroad”. He also questioned nominal representation to the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) in the committee.
Alleging that the committee was packed with either pro-RSS/BJP supporters or those who supported three black farm laws, Khaira questioned appointment of former Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Aggarwal as the Chairman of the committee, who besides being the architect of the three black farm laws, has no practical and grassroots knowledge or experience about agriculture and farming.
The Kisan Congress President observed that the government of India did not appear to be sincere in its purpose to address the agrarian crisis. “Otherwise it was a golden opportunity to set up a broad based committee representing farmers and experts from across the country that could suggest ways and means to address the agrarian crisis in the country which can take an alarming turn too difficult to be controlled”, he said.
Khaira also questioned the intentions of the central government by limiting the number of representatives from the SKM, which spearheaded the protests against farm laws, to just three in a committee of 26 members. “They will obviously be outnumbered and outshouted in the committee and their point of view will not be allowed to prevail”, he pointed out, while demanding that the SKM should have been given adequate representation in the said committee.
He extended his support to the SKM in rejecting the committee and announcing to launch a protest against this great betrayal. “Lakhs of farmers from across the country did not withdraw their protest to get betrayed by this government”, he said, while adding, the Congress party will continue to support the farmers in whatever way they decide to protest, as it has always done in the past. “We will not let the government get away with such betrayal”, Khaira warned.
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