New Delhi: While interacting with the revolted farmers, protesting against farm laws, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday slammed the Centre for "breaking the back" of the farmers by bringing such anti-farmer laws.
Taking to Twitter, Rahul Gandhi shared a video called "Kissan ki Baat" (voice of farmers), where he held a discussion with farmers from different states regarding the recently passed agriculture laws.
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किसानों के दिल की आवाज़ #KisaanKiBaat https://t.co/zIklGplT9B
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 29, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">किसानों के दिल की आवाज़ #KisaanKiBaat https://t.co/zIklGplT9B
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 29, 2020किसानों के दिल की आवाज़ #KisaanKiBaat https://t.co/zIklGplT9B
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 29, 2020
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Claiming that these agriculture laws are like daggers pushed into the hearts of the farmers, Rahul Gandhi alleged that BJP was standing in favour of Britishers when the country was fighting for independence.
"There is no difference between demonetization, GST and farm laws. The only difference is that those policies were like an axe in feet and these three farm laws are like a dagger pushed into your hearts. These people would not understand such things, they were standing with the Britishers," Gandhi said.
During the interaction, a Maharashtra farmer told Gandhi that Mahatama Gandhi initiated several movements to fight against the Britishers, "if "Bapu' was alive today, then he would have surely opposed these agricultural laws".
Calling it a "blind law", farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Maharashtra also informed that the Union government has given no trust about MSP. Calling it a "blind law", farmers alleged that it will lead to their exploitation.
One of the farmers from Haryana, said, "If these ordinances will give benefit to the farmers then why this government is not fixing an MSP? Farmers are working with commission agents, whom they call middlemen. But middlemen will come in the way now when our products will be sold to the corporates."
Another Haryana farmer, Om Prakash Dhankad said, "It should be considered as a crime if anyone procures the crop on a lesser price than MSP."
"There was a provision in East India Company to sell the produce at a lesser price to the corporates which they can later sell to the consumers at three or four times of the price. The same thing is happening now," said Ashok Butra, from Maharashtra.
In his reply, Gandhi said, "We were told that demonetization will bring back black money, but that was a lie. The main aim was to financially hurt the farmers and the working-class people. Aim of the rollout of GST was also the same. Similarly, no money was being given to the poor during the coronavirus pandemic."
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"Voice of the common men is a very powerful voice which once brought independence. Today as well, India will get independent but this time it will be the farmers' voice. I'm very clear about this. We'll have to oppose these laws. It's not just about the farmers, it's about the nation," Gandhi said at the end of this interaction.
However, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday also asked her party leaders to explore possibilities of passing state laws under Article 254(2) of the constitution in Congress-ruled states to bypass these anti-farmer laws, stating that it would alleviate farmers from "grave injustice" done by Modi government.
