Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh on Monday appealed to farmers to ensure that the Republic Day event remained peaceful, just as their anti-farm law protests had been so far. He urged the Union government once again to heed the troubled voice of the farming community in the true spirit of the Indian Republic.
“Peace has been the hallmark of your [farmers’] democratic protests all these months, and should remain integral to your agitation in the days ahead, including the Republic Day Tractor Rally into the national capital,” said the Chief Minister, in his Republic Day eve message.
“The sight of your tractors on Delhi roads will underline the fact that the ethos of the Indian Constitution and the essence of our Republic are inalienable and uncompromisable,” he said. “Farmers’ arduous battle for survival will always remind us of this truth, and it will always help us remember [lest we forget], that the principles on which stands the edifice of the India we know, and our forefathers strove to build, cannot be destroyed or demolished on the whims of a few.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Capt. Singh lamented that the federal structure on which India’s polity was founded was facing one of its biggest threats under the present Indian regime. The brazen manner in which the three farm laws were pushed through, without debate or discussion, could not, and should not be accepted in the world’s largest democracy. The Centre had absolutely no power to legislate on a State subject, which agriculture was, and the implementation of the farm laws violated every principle of Constitution and the federal structure it stood for, he added.