Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has called out the hypocrisy of opposition for spreading misinformation and misleading farmers against the crucial agricultural bills.
“These people who are misleading farmers do not want a revolution in the agriculture sector. They do not want the farmers to prosper economically. They cannot see India becoming Aatrmanirbhar in this sector. There are many faces, who in reality are the pawns of the corporate which do not want improvement in the farming sector,” Yogi said while speaking to Republic TV.
The biggest forces on the frontline of the current farmers’ protests in Delhi have all been votaries and champions of the same farm laws which they are shredding today, and not too long ago – be it the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), people who were active in Shaheen Bagh and even the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who it seems has still not forgotten how prime minister Narendra Modi ignored him for a whole week during his visit to India.
Yogi targeted AAP, stating its government first amended the APMC Act, issued a notification but then also supported the Bharat Bandh. One of its ex-members Yogendra Yadav supported Bharat Bandh despite supporting the amendments in the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) in the past. He said men like Yadav, if they were really worried about the farmers should talk about the amendments in the act but they won’t as it won’t serve their political motives.
“This is not the first time it is happening. They were doing it earlier as well and hence they have no credibility. They are using innocent farmers. People of the country rejected the Bharat Bandh. Now, new demands are being added every day, and these people are misleading them.
“When I spoke to several farmers unions they had expressed happiness on the passage of the bills. I would like to appeal once again to all the farmers’ unions that a solution will be found if there are talks.
“These people have nothing to do with farmers…(they) are the ones who are always there to provoke people. We will not tolerate these people who are spreading chaos under the name of farmers. These people who are present everywhere have been rejected by the people.”
Yogi said that same was true of Congress—they too were votaries of amendments in APMC, more freedom to farmers, but now they are opposing it. Or the economists and experts who seem to toe their lines, for example former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan.
Rajan had said: “Congress will repel the APMC Act and make the trade in agricultural produce—including exports and inter-state trade—free from all restrictions.” He had also said in 2014: “There is need to reduce the wedge between what the farmer gets and what is paid by the household by reducing the role, number and monopoly power of middlemen as well as by improving logistics.”
The same Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau who is today opposing Farm Acts 2020, had accused India of violating the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules through Minimum Support Price (MSP) or subsidized agri-produce.