Moga (Pb), October 4
The Punjab MLA and former Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu attended a tractor rally led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi here Sunday to protest against the Center’s new farm laws.
Gandhi came here to hold tractor rallies in Punjab from October 4-6.
The rallies, which have been named ‘Kheti Bachao Yatra’, would cover more than 50 km, spread over three days in various districts and electoral districts.
Sidhu’s participation in the rally came three days after the general secretary of the Indian Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Punjab affairs, Harish Rawat, met him at his residence in Amritsar.
After the meeting, Rawat had said that the cricketer-turned-politician would attend the tractor rallies.
Addressing a public meeting here, Sidhu criticized the BJP-led Center on Farm Laws, calling them an “attack on the federal structure” and alleged that the central government was being run by “capitalists.”
“They are stealing our rights,” he said, adding that the Center had imposed a “system” that had failed in Europe and the United States.
He said that these new laws would negatively affect five lakhs of workers and 30,000 “arthiyas” (commission agents).
Sidhu said the Punjab government should provide a minimum support price (MSP) for legumes and oilseeds and establish an infrastructure for crop storage.
Sidhu, who had disagreed with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, had stayed away from all Congress activities since he stepped down as cabinet minister last year.
However, last month Sidhu had organized a protest against the agricultural laws in Amritsar but without the flags of Congress. He had described the farm laws as an “attack on the federal structure” and had also said that these “black laws” would “ruin” the farming community.
Sidhu, MLA of Amritsar East, was stripped of key portfolios in the cabinet shakeup in June last year.
The prime minister had stripped Sidhu of the Local Government and Tourism and Cultural Affairs Departments and assigned him the power and portfolio of new and renewable energy.
However, Sidhu had refused to take office and resigned.
The tension between the Prime Minister of Punjab and Sidhu came to light in May last year when Singh blamed Sidhu for the “inept handling” of the Department of Local Government, claiming that it had resulted in a “poor performance” of Congress in areas urban areas in the 2019 Lok Sabha surveys.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Singh had taken offense at the mockery of Sidhu’s “friendly party” during the election campaign in Bathinda on May 17.
Sidhu had allegedly cornered the congressional government in the state over the desecration of religious texts, questioning why no FIR was presented against the Badals, who led the previous government in the state. PTI
