Victory of farmers, defeat of arrogance: Priyanka

Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement on withdrawal of the three agricultural laws on Friday, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that the ruling BJP decided to withdraw the contentious farm laws as it sensed defeat in the upcoming assembly polls. She demanded that an ordinance be brought to complete the repeal process quickly.

“What happened today is the victory of farmers and the defeat of arrogance. The Union government has understood that when citizens and farmers take a stand, it has to bow to it,” Priyanka told media persons at UPCC headquarters just ahead of visiting Naka Hindola gurudwara on the occasion of Guru Parv. Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are among the states going to the polls early next year.

While the Prime Minister said that the repeal will be effected in Parliament’s Winter session starting in a few days, Priyanka said that the Centre should not wait. “The government brings ordinances for various small issues, why not for this ? Is there any plan to do it with fanfare when the elections draw closer? Why are they not doing it now?” she sought to know.

The Congress honcho further said that the prime minister did not care either about the ‘martyrdom of over 600 farmers’ or the Lakhimpur Kheri incident where protesting farmers were mowed down by the vehicle of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s son. She alleged that BJP leaders have insulted farmers by calling them ‘terrorists, traitors, goons, miscreants’ and even the prime minister termed the agitators ‘andolanjeevi’.

Priyanka said that it was difficult to trust the prime minister’s intention and his changed attitude. “Now that they have started sensing defeat in the assembly elections, he has suddenly started to understand the truth of this country. This country has been sculpted by the farmers, this country belongs to the farmers, the farmer is the true caretaker of this country and no government can rule the country by crushing the interest of the farmers,” she stressed.

The Congress general secretary also recalled that her brother Rahul Gandhi had said long back that the Union government will have to bow before the grit and determination of farmers and agreed with farmers on continuing their agitation even after the PM’s announcement, claiming that the government’s stand keeps on changing.

“The laws have not been repealed yet. People of India are extremely wise. No one is wiser than farmers as they know what is good for them. This government worked at weakening farmers over the past seven years to ensure that agriculture is handed over to industrialists. Framers have seen what this government has done,” she said.
On the prime minister’s assertion that the BJP government failed to convince a section of the farmers, Priyanka said, “The government is still trying to differentiate between farmers, trying to say that those agitating are different from others. But it is totally wrong. All farmers of the country are together in this as all are facing problems of one kind or the other.”

When asked about political parties claiming credit for the development, the congress leader said, “We only supported the agitation. This is an agitation by farmers for their rights. They were fighting and it was the farmers who sacrificed their lives.”

Thousands of farmers have been camping in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh bordering Delhi since October last year demanding the repeal of the three Agriculture laws which they claim would leave them at the mercy of private companies. On their part, the Centre maintained that the laws were pro-farmer and gave them more options to sell their crops.