Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday said the Congress would fight the Centre’s new agriculture sector Acts constitutionally and legally.
Talking to journalists here and earlier at Khatkar Kalan, where he participated in party's sit-in against the new legislations, Captain Amarinder said he would consult lawyers to work out the legal course of action for challenging the unconstitutional laws in the Supreme Court.
“Agitation and legal recourse will have to be undertaken simultaneously to fight these new laws and force the Union government to rethink its decision,” he said.
Threat of unrest
Asserting that he does not want Punjab’s youth and farmers to take to arms to fight for their right to live, the Chief Minister warned that these new laws will endanger the security of the border State, as Pakistan’s ISI was always on the lookout for opportunities to foment trouble.
“Punjab has lost 35,000 lives to terrorism in senseless violence in the past and with the unrest among the farmers spreading to other States, the entire nation would be exposed to the ISI threat,” Captain Amarinder said, adding that Pakistan-backed forces will try to feed on the angst in India. Pointing out that 150 terrorists had been nabbed in Punjab in recent months with huge caches of arms and ammunition, the Chief Minister said he will not let anyone disturb the State’s peaceful atmosphere, which the new legislations had the potential to do.
AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab affairs, Harish Rawat, who was accompanying the Chief Minister, announced a signature campaign beginning October 2 to collect 2 crore signatures of farmers against the new farm laws. “These will be submitted to the President of India on November 14 to coincide with Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary,” he said, adding that ‘Kisan Sammelans’ would also be organised to take the fight to its logical conclusion.
Terming the new legislations as a total violation of the nation’s federal structure, the Chief Minister described the enactment of the farm bills as a black day for Punjab. “The manner in which the laws were brought in through the ordinance route and then pushed through Parliament without discussion was deplorable,” he said, adding that the Punjab government was never once apprised of the move to bring in such ordinances.
Slams Akali inaction
Hitting out at the Shiromani Akali Dal for defending the Bills for months, the Chief Minister again questioned what former Union minister Harsimrat Badal was doing since the promulgation of the ordinances and why had she did not quit the Cabinet when they were first brought in.
“Why did the Akalis oppose us in the all party meeting? Why did they run away from Assembly?” he asked, dismissing their hollow claims now on standing with the farmers. These claims are only meant to grab political power in Punjab, but nobody trusts them now, the Chief Minister said. He added that the SAD’s decision to quit NDA was due to the revolt from its own party members.
