Tough Time For Farmers, BJP Govt Eager To Get Its 'Rich Friends' Into Agri Sector: Priyanka Gandhi

Accusing the BJP government of not listening to the farmers, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday said that the central government seems eager to get its "billionaire friends" into the agriculture sector.

"This is a tough time for farmers. The government should have helped the MSP and farmers in their procurement system at this time, but the opposite has happened. The BJP government appears to be eager in getting its billionaire friends into the agriculture sector. It doesn't even want to listen to the farmers," Priyanka wrote on Twitter (roughly translated from Hindi).

The Congress general secretary's remark comes amid farmer protests being held in Punjab, Haryana, and Telangana opposing the Centre over the recent Agriculture Bills.

The Lower House of the Parliament had recently passed the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020 and Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill.

Earlier, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had said that the three agriculture-related bills are "anti-farmer" and added that under the new law any big trader can open a 'mandi' and under these new anti-farmer Bills, any dispute at 'mandi' will be handled by officials.

The agri-related bills have also led to differences between the ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, a SAD leader, resigned from the Union Cabinet displaying her opposition to the three bills. 

(ANI)

Raj Kantak

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