DMK president M.K. Stalin, in a letter to party cadre, slammed the BJP for passing the three agriculture Bills in Parliament despite severe protests by the Opposition parties, accusing it of using its brute majority to pass legislation and playing with the lives of farmers in the country.
He said farmers were up in arms against the Bills and their passage by the BJP had come in for condemnation from all sections of society.
BJP’s track record
“The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have published a number of advertisements using tax payers’ money, claiming that the three Bills will benefit farmers and protect their livelihoods. By publishing such advertisements, the BJP believes its lies will turn into truths. People are no longer willing to believe them, considering their track record of demonetisation, GST and the COVID-19 lockdown, claiming that they will benefit the people. These have, however, only given the opposite results,” Mr. Stalin said.
Unlike the BJP’s claim that the minimum support price (MSP) will not be affected, any mention of it is not to be found in the Bills. On the BJP’s claims that farmers will have the freedom to sell anywhere, he said the point was that the Bills actually took away their rights to sell in markets where they would get a higher price. Instead, it would make farmers captive to contract farming by corporates, he said.
Mr. Stalin said contrary to the BJP’s claims that farmers would be able to revoke their agreement with corporates, corporates, too, had the same rights and farmers would not be able to go to court against them. The BJP was saying that small farmers would benefit through the online sale of their produce. But this would only benefit the corporates. “These Bills will push the nearly 85% of farmers, who know only farming and agriculture, to untold miseries.”
DMK to hold protest
Accusing the BJP of framing laws that repeatedly infringed on the rights of the States, he said the three agriculture Bills, too, were such an attempt, and the DMK and its alliance partners were opposed to them.
He said the peaceful protests planned by the DMK and its allies on September 28 against the BJP should spread like fire across the country and any laws that do not serve people must be brought down.