Strongly defending the three farm laws, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Rajya Sabha on Monday that they will help in ensuring progress for small and marginal farmers. He urged people to identify and isolate destructive foreign ideologies and certain people who make a living by holding protests.
He said the Opposition made a U-Turn on the issues of reforms in agriculture sector. He asked the Congress to at least honour former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s words against preventing the farmers from selling their products. “He spoke about one large common market. These laws are in those direction. You should be proud that Modi is doing what Manmohan Singh had suggested,” he said.
Modi said whenever something new comes, there will be some opposition. “Even during green revolution, there was opposition. Left said green revolution was being done to serve American intereata. Even now, they were using the same language. But the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri stood by his ground and that’s why we are not dependant on any other countries for food grains,” Modi added.
He said the Centre is ready to hear suggestions. “We will accept if there are any suggestions. Let’s work together,” he said and added that Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar is in touch with the farmers. “Stop the protests. Take the elders back home. Let’s talk and find a solution,” he urged.
The Prime Minister said reforms should be given a chance. “If there are any mistakes, we will rectify this,” he said. He warned against the “misinformation campaign” on MSP. “MSP was there, MSP is there and MSP will be there. It will be continued. Please do not spread misinformation,” he said. “If we continue to stick to our limited political issues, we will be be pushing farmers back to dark ages. We will have to think about it,” he added.
He demanded that the attempts to mislead farmers should be defeated. “There are people who make a living by organising protests. We need to identify and isolate such people,” he said and maintained that foreign destructive ideologies are dangerous. “We need focus on rural economy. It has to be done with Atma-Nirbharta,” he said.
He said the laws favour dairy farmers too. He said there’s a good supply chain by cooperatives and private companies and 28 per cent of the the agriculture economy is their contribution. “Dairy farmers should get freedom,” he said.
Modi said India collectively took on Covid-19. “The credit goes to entire country. Some people were making fun of lighting a lamp. It instilled the social strength of the country. There are a number of other things to get entertained with, not this issue that affects the morale of the people. Corona warriors should be respected,” he said.
“We used to wait for vaccines. Now, we are providing vaccines for other countries. This gives a lot of confidence for is. The biggest vaccination programme is going on in our country. India sent medicines to 150 countries during the pandemic,” he said.