A day after unanimously passing Punjab’s own agriculture bills as well as a resolution against the Central Agricultural Laws (in the absence of BJP MLAs), the AAP and the SAD on Wednesday raised questions on these bills, saying they might not be enough to ease the plight of farmers. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh called it double standards of the two Opposition parties.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal criticised the Punjab CM for amending the Centre›s law and further questioned how it will benefit the farmers. Further terming the laws to be “false and fake”, Kejriwal accused Capt Amarinder of fooling the public.
AAP’s Punjab president and MP Bhagwant Mann termed the three bills passed in the Punjab Assembly not enough to safeguard the interests of farmers of the state. He said that the AAP had wholeheartedly supported the Amarinder government for the sake of farmers inside the House by rising above politics and accompanied the delegation to Raj Bhawan to meet the Governor.
“But, the Bills passed in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha were mere amendments to negate the three Bills passed by the Centre, which had not yet been signed by the Governor, sans which the amendments made by the state governments to the Central laws were meaningless. Therefore, the state government’s own laws guaranteeing the purchase of all crops at MSP is needed,” he added.
On the other hand, SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said that the Bills passed in Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday have thrown the farmers of the state “completely back at Modi’s mercy”. He said that the sole reason behind the SAD supporting the Bills in Vidhan Sabha was to show solidarity with the farmers.
The Akali leader said that the Bills have created serious new problems for the farmers as their sale below MSP would be ‘invalid’. They cannot claim payment if the buyer backs out. The effects of this dangerous clause will become clear as days pass, said Majithia. He also asked, “How would the state government help the farmer if the private player and the centre do not buy his crop at the MSP? Will the state government give any guarantee on its purchase?”
Reacting to this, the Chief Minister said he was amazed that the AAP and the SAD spoke in favour of the Bills in the Assembly, and even went with him to meet the Governor, but said different things outside.
Reacting to Kejriwal’s tweet raising doubts about the effectiveness of the amendment Bills passed unanimously in the Punjab Assembly, Captain Amarinder said it smacked of total ignorance on the part of the Delhi CM. He said that instead of questioning his government’s Bills, it would be better for Kejriwal to ask the AAP’s Punjab unit to back the state government in its fight for the rights of the farmers unless their support to our Bills was just a façade.
“The ball is in your court — are you with farmers or against them?”, he asked Kejriwal, challenging him to come out with a categorical stand on the issue of Punjab amendment Bills, which AAP MLAs in the state had backed in the Assembly but had criticised outside the House.
“If they thought we (I and my government) were fooling the people of Punjab, why did they not say so in the House? Why did they support and vote for our Bills?” asked Captain Amarinder. “If I had to fool the people why would I honestly share with them my apprehensions? Why would I openly talk about the possible scenarios instead of feeding them with a whole bunch of lies, as the Akalis and AAP are used to doing?” he asked.