As the Samyukt Kisan Morcha-organised Bharat-bandh progressed, farmers leader Rakesh Tikait said that the BJP-led NDA dispensation at the Centre is coming out with what he described as senseless amendments in laws and policies. “Today the country witnessed the Bharat Bandh. I feel the government is making senseless amendments to the laws and policies. The government wants to sell the valuable resources of the country, they want to sell the lands,” Tikait, the national spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union said.
Addressing the Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad (BCS), a national conclave for politically-inclined students hosted by Pune-based MIT School of Government, he said that youth need to join the revolution. “It is high time for the youth to step out of their homes and join the revolution. I feel this will strengthen the revolution immensely,” he said.
“If the government continues to dismantle the resources, one day India will be known as ‘Mazdoor colony’ as there will only be a labour class in the country. The protest will get over only with a mutual understanding with the Government and not with the intervention of court. The government has illegally occupied the land of the country. We are absolutely against privatisation and we will sit as long as this bill is taken back. ‘Roti bhook mitane ke liye hai, privatisation ke liye nahi,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Krishan Bir Chaudhary, President, Bharatiya Krishak Samaj, former Chairman, State Farms Corporation of India and Indian Sugarcane Development Council, Government of India and founder, Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), said, “Today, the youth wants to understand the agriculture and the farmers unlike the past. There must be no concept of the mediators. It is the right of every farmer to get into the right market. This law empowers the farmers to sell their agricultural items without any pressure.”
“If you look into the past, the farmers always wanted the markets to open where they could sell the food essentials directly. MSP aims to provide symmetry to the farmers and contract farming must be promoted. Contract farming will make sure that no food item gets wasted. I really believe that this bill will not just empower the farmers and the Indian economy but it will take Indian agriculture on a different level in the global market as well,” he added.
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