BJP blasts Congress, opposition parties over centre's farm laws

Hitting out at the Congress over the farm laws issue, BJP president J P Nadda on Wednesday said the party was opposing the very measures it had promised in its Lok Sabha election manifesto last year. Nadda took potshots at Punjab CM Amarinder Singh and other political parties over the Congress party's conflicting stance on the agrarian laws cleared by the Parliament.

Chandigarh: BJP national president JP Nadda on Wednesday blasted the political parties opposing the agriculture laws and said all of them were opposing the three farm laws "purely for political reasons".

Delivering the first Kamal Sharma memorial address, the BJP president said all parties were beguiling the Punjab farmers after they had failed to deliver anything reformative to them.

Lambasting the Punjab Congress and Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Nadda said that the Congress was, in fact, opposing the commitments it had made in its 2017 election manifesto that had now been implemented by the Modi government.

The Congress had promised to do away with Mandis and promote contract farming and this is what the Modi government bills have ensured.

"Will Congress say that it made wrong promises in its manifesto?" Nadda asked.

He said the Congress, which never worked for the welfare of farmers, was playing petty politics to "fool the farmers".

Nadda fired the UPA government that was in power for 10 years yet did not implement the Swaminathan Commission report. "The Modi government has not only implemented the suggestions made in the report but had delivered for farmers by promising them one and a half times more price on the cost of a crop", he added.

He said the three farm laws would not only empower the farmers in the country but would also release them from the age-old bondage that they were tied to. While assuring that there would be no change in the MSP system, under the new provisions farmers in Punjab can now sell their crop beyond the local mandis.

(ANI)