Modi govt running away from facing truth in Parliament: Bhagwant Mann

He said there should have been a constructive debate while withdrawing the laws in Parliament

-The credit for the victory goes to the farmers and labourers, the politicians should desist from falling in credit war

Chandigarh, 29 November
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab President and Member of Parliament Bhagwant Singh, while addressing the media outside Parliament after the withdrawal of three controversial laws on agriculture in both the Houses of Parliament, said that The government did not even discuss the withdrawal of the laws as the Union government does not dare to face it in Parliament.
Mann said the withdrawal of the contentious Agriculture laws should have been debated in both the Houses of Parliament, but the government was admitting the mistake of forcibly withdrawing the Agriculture laws but is running away from answering questions from the Opposition.
Bhagwant Mann said that these questions had to be answered in the House as to who was responsible for the loss of life of more than 700 farmers and laborers who were martyred during the struggle. When will the bill for procurement of all crops be introduced on MSP?
Why Union Home Minister Ajay Mishra responsible for Lakhimpur Khiri incident was not sacked? When will the BJP leaders who have spoken out against Anandata apologize? Who will account for the financial loss incurred during this period? However, BJP ran away from answering these questions in the House, though Prime Minister Modi assured outside the House that the government was ready for discussion.
Bhagwant Singh, while addressing the media outside Parliament after the withdrawal of three contentitious agricultural laws in both the Houses of Parliament said that credit for withdrawal of these laws goes to relentless struggle by farmers and finally our farmers have won.  These sons of soil continued their struggle despite Modi government’s arrogance, tyranny and wrath of cold weather. No political party or individual should try to claim the credit for repealing black laws. Issuing warning to the Modi led Centre Government, Mann said that withdrawal of only three black laws is not enough. The Union Government should ensure legal guarantee and purchase of MSP on all crops and  proposed electricity bill should be cancelled with immediate effect. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should publically apalogize for the loss of lives of 700-750 farmers who were martyred during the struggle and the families of the victims should be given adequate compensation. It is imperative that the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs responsible for the Lakhimpur Khiri incident be removed from the Cabinet.
Bhagwant Mann said, “The Union government should not have fought with the brave heart community who turned  forests of Rudarpur, Udhampur  in Uttar Pradesh into cultivable land.  Mann said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologize to the farmers in Parliament for forcibly enforcing three black agriculture laws and the struggle of the farmers of the country including Punjab forced the Union Government to repeal these laws.  The Prime Minister should apologize to the families of the victims and the injured farmers who had to suffer due to arrogant and autocratic atitude of Prime Minister and his government. At the same time as per the demand of the farmers the Central Government should also provide space and funds for the construction of proper memorial of the farmers’ struggle.
Bhagwant Mann said that cases have been registered against struggling farmers and laborers in different states of the country. Therefore, the Narendra Modi Government should issue orders to all the states to cancel the cases registered against the farmers.
Advocating for a legal guarantee for the procurement of all crops on MSP, Bhagwant Mann said that crops must be procured at fixed prices to save the livelihood of the whole country. It is imperative to bring this whole process under the purview of legal guarantee. The MSP process will have a budget of around Rs 16-17 lakh crore and the central government can easily continue the MSP process, ”he said.
Bhagwant Mann said that there was no doubt that the BJP government led by Narendra Modi was responsible for bringing in the Black Agriculture laws But the Akali Dal, Badal and the Congress are equally to blame. When the Modi government enacted the Black Law Ordinance on June 5, 2020, Harsimrat Kaur Badal was a Cabinet Minister in the Union Cabinet, had signed the bills. Not only that, for the next several months Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Parkash Singh Badal continued to praise black agriculture laws. However, due to strong protests and putting up ‘Entry Ban’ boards in villages and towns against the leaders of Akali Dal, Harsimrat Kaur Badal had to resign from the Cabinet under pressure and the Akali Dal Badal severed political ties with the BJP just to save their face in public, however, they are still one and the same.
Criticizing the ruling Punjab Congress, Mann said that the then Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh and Finance Minister Mr. Manpreet Singh Badal used to attend the meetings of the High Level Committee on Agriculture Bills but neither they registered protest of Punjab farmers in the committeenor apprised the farmers of Punjab about the adverse effects of black farming laws. Congress and Capt. Amarinder Singh kept cheating the farmers as they had colluded with Modi Government but now the cat has come out of the bag and everything is crystal clear to the public. According to Mann, among the political parties of the nation, only Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), has been protesting against black farming laws from day one and has been following the guidelines given by the farmers during the farmers’ struggle.
“The Congress government in Punjab has no policy for the development of agriculture, however after the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party government, a policy for the development of agriculture will be formulated, cooperative societies will be revived, farmers will be provided adequate price for other crops as an alternative to wheat-paddy cycle, besides a special road map for the development of Punjab would be implemented.