CHANDIGARH: Amid protests by farmers over three agriculture-related bills proposed by the government, Punjab MLA and former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday he said “Punjab, Punjabiyat and all Punjabi” are with the peasants.
Breaking his silence after his resignation as minister last year, the cricketer-turned-politician described agriculture as the “soul of Punjab.”
In a tweet in Punjabi, he said: “Agriculture is the soul of Punjab, wounds of the body can heal, but an attack on our spirit, our existence will not be tolerated. The trumpet of war says Inqilab Zindabad, Punjab, Punjabiyat and every Punjabi is with the farmers. ”
The congressional leader posted the tweet on his Twitter account more than a year after he resigned from the state cabinet.
In another tweet in Hindi, he hit the BJP-led government and said: “Governments keep making the same mistake, the dust was on his face, but he kept cleaning the mirror.”
Sidhu has been held incommunicado since he resigned from the state cabinet last year.
The Amritsar MLA, who disagreed with the prime minister Amarinder Singh, was stripped of key portfolios in a cabinet shakeup in June last year.
Various groups of farmers in Punjab are protesting against the farm bills The government has presented in Parliament during the current monsoon session.
Farmers have expressed fear that the proposed legislation would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system and would be at the “mercy” of large corporations.
The Lok Sabha approved on Thursday the Draft Law on Trade in Agricultural Products and Trade (Promotion and Facilitation) and the Farmers Agreement (Empowerment and Protection) on Price Guarantee and Agricultural Services.
He had previously passed the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill.
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