Following the Supreme Court’s decision to stay the implementation of the three farm laws, leaders of the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab pushed for the repeal of the legislations.
The State BJP leaders have urged farmers to withdraw their ongoing agitation.
‘Centre’s arrogance’
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa said he was disappointed with the arrogance of the Central government. “The fact is that the Supreme Court should not be stepping in to hold laws in abeyance. I am shocked at the lengths the Government of India will go to ignore Parliament and, through that, the will of the people,” he said in a statement.
“I again urge the Central government to repeal these Acts and bring a new set of laws that can be scrutinised by a select committee. The farmer unions have made it clear that they will not stop their protests and will not appear in front of the committee as set up by the Supreme Court... this is a result of the four members that are a part of the committee. The majority of these members have written publicly in favour of these farming laws. Given their statements, I would be hard pressed to believe that they would be neutral arbiters,” he added.
AAP’s Punjab president and Lok Sabha MP Bhagwant Mann said the party fully supported the demands made by the farmers.
‘No compromise’
“The party does not want any compromise with the self-respect of the farmers and the only way to overcome the deadlock is to repeal the black agricultural laws; forming a committee is not a permanent solution,” Mr. Mann said in a statement.
Mr. Mann alleged that most of the people included in the committee were representatives of the Central government.
“We want the abrogation of anti-farmer black laws. Whether the Supreme Court revokes them or the Central government, we have nothing to do with it. All we need is the cancellation of these laws,” he said.
Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma appealed to farmers to call off their protest in view of the Supreme Court directions. Mr. Sharma said that the fears of farmers about the discontinuation of Minimum Support Price or the ‘mandi’ system were completely unfounded. He said the legislations were in no way against the interests of the farmers.
