Even as he slammed the Akalis and Aam Aadmi Party for spreading lies over the farm laws and dubbed the Centre’s refusal to repeal them as ‘inhuman’, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday announced jobs for one member of each of the families of the state’s farmers who had lost their lives in the agitation against the black laws.
Questioning“why the Centre is hesitating to repeal the laws?”, the CM said they should repeal the laws, then sit with the farmers and frame new laws after taking all stakeholders in confidence.
Pointing out that the Constitution of India had already been amended so many times, he asked why the Government of India was adamant about not taking back the farm laws.
Hitting out at the Central government for pushing the laws through Parliament with brute majority, without any discussion, the CM said the entire country was paying the price for this.
“Is there a Constitution in the country? Agriculture is a state subject under Schedule 7, so why has the Center interfered with a state subject?” he asked, adding that “they went and enacted these laws without consulting anyone, because of which we have all landed in this situation.”B
Barelywere things coming back to normal after the lockdown, when the entire industry had shut down operations, when the farm laws were imposed, he said, adding that the legislations had been implemented by the Centre without any thought to the impact it would have on the farmers and agriculture.A
Asserting that “we are with the farmers and will stand by them,” the CM said during the 20th edition of his Facebook Live #AskCaptain session that the Punjab government and every person in Punjab stands with the farmers.
“All Punjabis are concerned about our farmers sitting on Delhi borders, they are there to persuade Center to repeal laws that were implemented without taking us into confidence,” he said, adding that “lots of old people are sitting there at the borders not for themselves but for the future of their children and grandchildren.
“The sad part, said the CM was that “we are losing our farmers to the cold every day, with an estimated farmers 76 dying so far.”
In addition to the Rs Five lakh compensation being given to the families of the deceased farmers, his government would also give a job to a family member, he added.
Captain Amarinder agreed with a Tarn Taran resident that the Centre was being arrogant and was not thinking about the impact of the Farm Laws on the farmers. “You should ask the Central government if India is not a democracy anymore?” he said, in response to the resident’s question as to whether democracy no longer exists in this country. “It is against humanity,” said the CM, agreeing that when the farmers for whom the laws are made don’t want them, then why can’ they be repealed.
Stressing that representatives of almost all farm unions from across the country were sitting at the Delhi borders, the CM said the agitation was of the entire nation’s farmers and not just of Punjab’s farmers.