Punajb chief minister (CM) Captain Amarinder Singh expressed the hope that the pain of the agitating farmers, who braved the pandemic and the heat to protest against the Agriculture Bills, will reach the Central Government.
“Maybe the distressing visuals of tens of hundreds of farmers out on the roads at hundreds of locations in Punjab, and in several other states, will touch the hearts of the central leadership,” said the CM adding, “Perhaps the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will now realise its folly.”
Reiterating his commitment to fight the draconian laws till his last breath, the CM urged the President of India not to give his assent to the Bills, which were crafted to destroy not just the economy of Punjab and the food security of the nation but also the lives of lakhs of farmers and their families.
“The Bills, if implemented, will have devastating effects for the border state of Punjab, as well as for the entire nation,” he said.
Captain Amarinder also lashed out at the Akalis for their public posturing on the Bills, which even the farmers had dismissed as crocodile tears. He said, “Akali double standards had been totally exposed by the fact that they continued to be a part of the anti-farmer ruling coalition at the Centre and had, till date, refused to even come out with any public criticism of the Union Government. This drama of Harsimrat resigning from the Union Cabinet is not enough to convince the farmers of the sincerity of the Shiromani Akali Dal.”
The SAD, an ally in the NDA government, is the only key political party that held road blockades across the state against the Centre’s move. While Akali activists blocked roads across the state, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders did not join the farmers’ protests but expressed solidarity with the protesters.
Tamil Nadu farmers protest in a unique manner
Farmers in Tamil Nadu’s Trichy district protested in a unique way by tying their hands and holding human skulls outside the district collector’s office. The protest was organised by the National South Indian Rivers Link Agricultural Association.
“The farmers have tied themselves with long chains which symbolically represent the farmers’ bill that has tied them. The human skulls state that they will become dead if the bill is implemented,” said Ayyakkannu, president of the association.
