Rashtriya Lok Dal vice president Jayant Chaudhary on Wednesday said the Union government was busy appeasing its corporate friends. “Chaudhary Charan Singh used to say that the country’s route to progress goes through farmer’s fields but this government feels it goes through privatising agriculture to fulfil the interests of Ambanis and Adanis,” he said at a ‘kisan panchayat’ in Nakud area of Saharanpur.
“These panchayats are sending a message that ignoring the farmers’ concerns would not be in the interest of the government,” he said. “Not only are these farm laws black, the government’s obstinacy to force them is also dark.”
Referring to the massive security arrangements on national highways around Delhi, Mr. Chaudhary said even the Mughals spared the Grand Trunk Road. “But this government has dug up highways and has inserted nails to stop farmers. If they dig up your roads, you uproot them politically,” he observed, asking farmers to hurt the BJP through the ballot.
He said by not increasing the state advised price of sugarcane, the State government had insulted the farmers. He reminded Yogi Aditynath’s promise to create a farmer relief fund in the name of Chaudhary Charan Singh.
As the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he said, Narendra Modi was in favour of making a law on MSP (minimum support price), but now he had changed his stand. “He makes fun of farmers in Parliament, calls them parasites. Can somebody who feeds the world could be a ‘parijeevi’,” he asked.
He also took the government to task for increasing the rates of railway tickets and diesel and petrol prices. “It seems the government wants everybody to stay at home. It is becoming difficult for farmers to use tractors,” he added.
