The Congress on Saturday slammed Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar for asserting in Nagpur on Friday that the three farm bills repealed in the just-concluded winter session of Parliament will be brought back.
Party general secretary and chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala told a press conference that this is a clear conspiracy and a sign of duplicity as the Prime Minister had personally apologised to the farmers and withdrawn the three controversial farm laws. Still, his agriculture minister is saying that the government will bring back these laws, describing them as beneficial for the farmers.
He repeated the agriculture minister's statement that these laws were a major reform after 70 years of Independence and the government was not feeling dejected; rather, it was a tactical retreat – a step had been taken back, to move forward. Surjewala said this clearly shows that the government had repealed the farm laws only because of the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
The agriculture minister had clearly said that the laws will be brought back, to bring agriculture under the control of the corporate sector, Surjewala pointed out.
Tomar had also stated that farmers are the backbone of India and the reforms are necessary to strengthen this backbone.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, too, tweeted that the agriculture minister has insulted the Prime Minister by contradicting him in public. "If the government again takes anti-farmer steps, the 'annadata' (food givers) will again resort to Satyagrah. They have crushed the government's ego once and they will do so again," he said.
Tomar had blamed "some people" for the scrapping of the controversial laws. "Some people did not like these laws, which, 70 years after Independence, were a big reform under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership," the Agriculture Minister was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
Two days before it scrapped the farm laws, the government had issued a note on 'Objects and Reasons'. The note, signed by Tomar and released to members of Parliament, blamed a group of farmers for standing in the way of the endeavour to improve the condition of the farmers and said that the government had "tried hard to sensitise farmers on the importance of the farm laws".
