Leader of the Opposition and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said on Wednesday the Congress would meet Governor Satyadev Narayan Arya soon to demand a “special session” of the Assembly to discuss the Centre’s three agricultural bills.
Mr. Hooda said imposition of the laws without the consent of the farmers would amount to dictatorship. “The Congress would oppose their forcible implementation at every level and the party is ready to launch a mass movement,” he said.
“If the government continues to force the decision on the farmers, these black laws will be abolished as soon as the Congress government is formed in the State.”
Mr. Hooda, who visited the Gharaunda and the Karnal grain markets to meet farmers, labourers and traders present in the ‘mandi’, said the bills were not acceptable to the farmers without the guarantee of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) at C2 prices, as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission.
“The government should add the provision of guarantee of the MSP to the ordinances/bills. Otherwise, all three black laws should be rejected outright as the Punjab government did,” he said.
“On the lines of Punjab, all the parties and farmer organisations of the State should oppose the anti-farmer decisions in unison. The BJP is trying to divide the farmers and try to mislead them. Instead of talking to farmer leaders, they are being repeatedly insulted and arrested,” he said.
Mr. Hooda said the farmers of the State have been demanding fair prices for the crops while the government wants to get rid of the MSP. “The government is continuously increasing the input costs for the farmers but is not ready to increase the MSP in line with the increasing cost of cultivation,” he said.
