Former Union Minister and Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Chinta Mohan on Saturday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government for “repeating” the Punjab Land Colonization Act of 1906 (Amendment), and causing agrarian unrest in the country after a gap of 115 years.
Speaking to the media after observing Martyrs’ Day to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniversary at Tirupati, Chinta Mohan blamed the BJP leaders for the attack on farmers at Red Fort. He said the Congress Party would stand by the agitating farmers and not relent till justice was meted out to them.
“The agitation of the Punjab farmers in 1906 led by Bhagat Singh’s father and Lala Lajpat Rai had forced the British to withdraw the Act in 1907. Thousands of farmers then laid seize to Delhi for months together, forcing the British rulers to temporarily run the administration from Mumbai. The present agitation on the outskirts of New Delhi is similar to that. If the government doesn’t budge, it will meet the same fate as British,” Dr. Mohan said.
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The former Union Minister said that though the farmers had adopted peaceful means to express their grievances, the NDA government resorted to violence against them.
The Congress leader deplored that the farmers’ agitation now lacked dedicated leaders like Putchalapalle Sundarayya, Tarimela Nagireddy, N.G. Ranga and Lachhanna. “The BJP leaders could suppress the agitations by means of corrupting the leaders. Unfortunately, the YSRCP and TDP are in full support of the anti-farmers’ policies of NDA government,” Dr. Mohan added.