As all attempts by the Union Government to make hundreds of thousands farmers protesting against the three farm laws have failed, and the protests are going to intensify, leaders of the Opposition have stated that they will back the farmers demands all the way. “The farmers will not back down. The farmers of the country have understood that the Modi government has betrayed them. Farmers know that if they do not stand up, and compromise today, they have no future…” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said after he along with senior Opposition leaders met President Ram Nath Kovind seeking his intervention on the matter.
A delegation of Opposition leaders comprising Shri Sharad Pawar, Shri Rahul Gandhi, Shri D. Raja, Shri Sitaram Yechury and Shri T.K.S. Elangovan called on President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan and presented a memorandum. pic.twitter.com/YEUbFLCpx4
— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) December 9, 2020
The five-member delegation included Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, and Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D Raja, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader TKS Elangovan, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. They submitted a memorandum to the President, urging him “as the custodian of the Indian Constitution,” to persuade “your government” not to be obdurate and accept the demands raised by India’s annadatas”.
The Centre must just take back these laws. We met Rashtrapati ji today. The content of these laws and how they were passed, both are highly objectionable. We must protect our Kisans and the food security of all our people. https://t.co/8n3wQf636Y
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) December 9, 2020
“We told the President that the three Farm laws were passed undemocratically in Parliament and have sought the repeal of these laws,” added Yechury. The Opposition leaders’ memorandum as quoted by media reports stated: “More than twenty political parties, including many parties running state governments, have extended their solidarity with the ongoing historic struggle of the Indian peasantry and extended wholehearted support to their call for a Bharat Bandh yesterday, demanding the repeal of the retrograde Agri Laws and Electricity Amendment Bill.
“These new Agri Laws, passed in the Parliament in an anti-democratic manner preventing a structured discussion and voting, threaten India’s food security, destroy Indian agriculture and our farmers, lay the basis for the abolition of the minimum support price and mortgage agriculture and our markets to the caprices of multinational agri-business corporates and domestic corporates.”
“We are all with the farmers,” Gandhi and the Opposition leaders told the media after meeting the President, adding theta the way the three laws were passed in Parliament was “an insult to farmers”.
देश का किसान समझ गया है कि मोदी सरकार ने उन्हें धोखा दिया है और अब वो पीछे नहीं हटने वाला क्योंकि वो जानता है कि अगर आज समझौता कर लिया तो उसका भविष्य नहीं बचेगा।
किसान हिंदुस्तान है!
हम सब किसान के साथ हैं, डटे रहिए। pic.twitter.com/8r8aW3GwMw
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 9, 2020
“We met the President and informed him of our view regarding the three farm laws. We have asked for their repeal. We informed the President that it is critical that they are taken back,” said Gandhi. He said these laws are aimed at handing over the farming sector to the “friends of the prime minister” while saying the farmers would not back off now and that the Opposition stood firmly in support. According to Pawar the delegation requested the President to recommend that these farm laws be repealed as they were not discussed with either stakeholders or in the Select Committee of Parliament.
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