Bombay:
The head of the CPN, Sharad Pawar, today warned the central government not to test the patience of farmers protesting against the three new agricultural laws that he said had been quickly passed in parliament. If not addressed in time, the senior leader said, the upheaval could snowball as more people join it from various parts of the country.
“The farm laws were hastily passed. There is a possibility that this protest will spread across the country. The solution to end this stalemate is to roll back the laws and argue with farmers,” Pawar told the media in Mumbai.
“We insist … the farmer is the annadata (food supplier) of the country. His tolerance should not be put to the test,” said the president of the National Congress Party (NCP).
Noting that the current stalemate between protesters and authorities is likely to continue for some time, he said the “extreme demand” by farmers to withdraw the laws now runs up against the government’s unfavorable stance.
The veteran leader, who was also the Union agriculture minister, said that more people, traveling on around 700 tractors, had joined the ongoing protest along the Delhi border on Friday morning.
“I’ve been told that every day more farmers come and join them from different parts of the county,” he said. “The protest is restricted to the Delhi border. But it cannot be ruled out that it could spread to other places as well, if a decision is not made in time.”
When asked about the comment by Union Minister Raosaheb Danve on the involvement of China and Pakistan in the farmers’ agitation, he said: “Some people are such that they have no sense of what should be said, where and how. He had made such statements in the past as well … We should not pay attention to such comments. “
.
