New Delhi: At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was going all out against the opposition for what he called ‘falsehood’ spread by it over their resistance to three farm bills, BJP President JP Nadda, too, staunchly defended the legislations.
Interestingly, both deviated from their original topic – the PM was virtually inaugurating the Kosi mega bridge project and Nadda was launching a special edition of ‘Kamal Sandesh’ magazine.
“First, peasants were in slavery. Prime Minister Modi gave a call to liberate farmers. This Bill gives them the freedom to chose whether the farmer sells his crop in mandi or sells it in any corner of the country,” said Nadda.
He reiterated that both systems of selling agricultural produce under the Agriculture produce market committee and the MSP from the Centre will continue to exist. In a strong charge, Nadda alleged that those who stand with middlemen are objecting to these bills. “Those opposing it are speaking the language of middlemen and not of farmers,” he remarked.
“The Congress party had said in its manifesto that we will bring the farmers out from APMC, the Essential Commodities Act has rusted, we will change it. Modi ji has shown the way today by doing it,” Nadda added.
PM Modi, too, called out the opposition and called their arguments a “blatant lie”. This assertive and aggressive defence by the BJP President and the Prime Minister comes just a day after the resignation of Harsimrat Kaur Badal from the union cabinet protesting against the Bills.
The Modi government brought three major bills related to the agricultural sector while the Opposition opposed them.
The first bills is the Essential Commodities Act while the second one is on Farm Produced and Trade (Promotion and Facilitation) which allows everyone to buy and sell agricultural products. The third bill is on Farmer (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services which legitimates contract-based farming.
