Agricultural Laws: Ravi Shankar Prasad said that contract farming also started during the Manmohan Singh government.
New Delhi:
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today accused non-BJP parties of jumping on the farmers’ protest train, saying that all that has been done in the agricultural sector reforms of the government of the NDA was on the opposition’s to-do list when it was in power. His attack was mainly focused on Congress, which, according to the minister, was in favor of privatization when he was in power. The head of the Nationalist Congress Party, Sharad Pawar, the agriculture minister in the UPA government, was also targeted by the minister a day before the all-India strike in favor of farmers, which has been supported by unions and parties. opposition.
Prasad said that the repeal of the APMC Act was part of the 2019 congressional manifesto. Contract farming also started during the Manmohan Singh government in many congressional states, the minister said.
It is clearly mentioned in the manifesto, Prasad said, that Congress “will repeal the APMC law and free interstate commerce from restrictions.”
“In an interview with Shekhar Gupta, Sharad Pawar, the APMC Act will end in six months … The Planning Commission’s recommendation came during the UPA government that the central government can enact the interstate agricultural trade law” said Prasad.
“When Sharad Pawar said that if we do not improve we will stop giving financial support, then SP, TDP, Left were supporting the Manmohan government. This is your double character. You are ready to go to any limit,” he added. .
The BJP began retaliating against protesting farmers and the opposition on Sunday, highlighting examples of their support for individual aspects of farm laws in the past.
BL Santosh, the BJP general secretary, tweeted an article from the Punjab-based English daily The Tribune on Sunday, titled “Allowing companies to buy wheat: farmers.
“This was in 2008. Farmers in Punjab and Haryana demanded that companies be allowed agricultural marketing. Just understand the duplicity of the same unions now,” reads the attached tweet, which carried the hashtag #FarmersWithModi.
Today, Maharashtra’s chief minister Devendra Fadnavis called all parties supporting the bandh “hypocrites”.
“Maharashtra had passed a law. There are private CPAs in operation. There are value chains available even now. So it amazes me that what Maharashtra did during our time, what if the Center does?” he said.
“On December 27, 2013, Rahul Gandhi had said that vegetables and fruits would be denoted from the APMC Act. Now that the Center is doing that, what happens?” he questioned.
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