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Opposition displays unity at mega farmers rally
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SME Times News Bureau | 01 Dec, 2018
A massive farmers rally in the national capital on Friday turned into a
show of opposition unity with leaders including Congress President Rahul
Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accusing the Modi
government of plunging the country into an acute agrarian crisis and
backed demands for a complete loan waiver and higher crop prices.
Led
by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), which
represents over 200 farm outfits, thousands of farmers marched from the
historic Ramlila Maidan to Parliament Street demanding a special
session of Parliament pass bills to cancel farm loans and to ensure
guaranteed remunerative prices for farm commodities based on the
recommendations of the M.S. Swaminathan Commission.
Two private
member bills in this regard were introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2017 by
Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana leader and MP Raju Shetti, who warned on
Friday that the Modi government would face defeat in the 2019 elections
unless it accepted farmers' demands.
A host of opposition
leaders including Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar,
National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram
Yechury, Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Kejriwal, Trinamool Congress' Dinesh
Trivedi, Loktantrik Janata Dal's Sharad Yadav and TDP leader K.
Raveendra Kumar tore into the Modi government over its "anti-farmer
policies".
Also present were former JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani.
Pledging
the opposition's solidarity with the farmers, Gandhi declared that
"farm loans will have to be waived even if it required changing the
Prime Minister."
"We all are with you. Be it changing laws or
changing the Prime Minister, we will do everything that is required to
ensure your loans are waived. If any government insults the farmers,
then it has to be uprooted and that is going to happen," said Gandhi.
Accusing
Modi of speaking only for his "industrialist cronies", Gandhi said
farmers were not demanding any free gift but seeking what was their
right.
"When 3.5 lakh crore of loans of the biggest
industrialists can be written off by the Modi government, then the loans
of millions of farmers will also have to be waived," he thundered.
Speaking
in a similar vein, Kejriwal charged the Modi government with
"back-stabbing" farmers by telling the Supreme Court that it cannot
implement recommendations of the M.S. Swaminathan Commission which the
BJP promised to do so in 2014.
"They (farmers) are not begging
but fighting for their rights," said Kejriwal and blasted the
government's crop insurance scheme.
"This is not an insurance
scheme but it is BJP's 'kisan daka yojna' (plunder farmers scheme). The
Modi government is worried more about Ambanis and Adanis," he alleged.
Kejriwal expressed happiness over major opposition parties coming out in support of the farmers.
NCP
chief Pawar, endorsing the passage of the twin bills, called for a
holistic approach to improve the pitiable condition of the farming
community.
"The (Modi) government has remained insensitive to
the farmers' plight... We will no more remain silent. We will try our
best to pass these bills," asserted Pawar.
Amid chants
of anti-Modi slogans, opposition leaders attacked the Prime Minister
over "crony" capitalism and neglect of farmers' plight. Sharad
Yadav held the Modi government responsible for "over three lakh farmer
suicides" in the country in the last four and a half years. He called
upon the people to dethrone the "anti-farmer government" led by Modi.
Flaying
the BJP government for the acute agrarian crisis in the country,
Yechury likened Modi to a "pocketmaar" (pickpocket) and accused him of
"looting the poor".
"Our party supports the two bills and we
will pressurise the government for their passage. But everybody knows
what are the intentions of the government," he said.
Men
and women marched under various banners with flags and placards in the
massive show of strength by the AIKSCC, its fourth mega rally in the
national capital following the "Mandsaur firing" in Madhya Pradesh in
which five farmers were killed in June 2017.
Swaraj India
leader Yogendra Yadav said the congregation was not here to just protest
but had emerged as an alternative to existing policies.
Many farmers vowed to vote against the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. "Modi
is not my enemy. But he has not fulfilled the promises he made to
farmers," said Rajendra Prasad, a farmer from Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar
Pradesh.
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