Makingit clear that his government was totally opposed to the Centre’s Farm Laws,Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday urged the Governmentof India not to stand on ego and prestige but to immediately scrap thelegislations and bring in new laws after fresh discussions on the issue withthe farmers.
TheChief Minister also declared that “we will go to the Supreme Court if thePresident does not given assent to the State Amendment Bills”, whichunfortunately the Governor is still sitting on instead of forwarding them forpresidential approval, even though the Vidhan Sabha had unanimously passed theBills, with all parties voting for them. It was tragic, however, that theAkalis and AAP had later started playing political games on the issue, headded.
Addressingmediapersons on the completion of four years of his government, the ChiefMinister declared that he could not see any middle path to break the stalematebetween the farmers and the Government of India. The Centre should scrap theFarm Laws, sit with the farmers and make new legislations in their place, hesaid.
“What’sthe use of making it a prestige issue?,” he remarked, asking the Centre, “Howmany more farmers do you want to kill (with your adamant stand)?” There arepoor farmers sitting out there, with women and elderly, he pointed out, addingthat Punjab alone has lost 112 farmers’ lives since the agitation began. “TheConstitution has been amended more than 100 times in the past, so why can it notbe done again to scrap these laws?,” he asked.
TheChief Minister said he failed to understand why the central government wastrying to break the age-old time-tested relationship between farmers andArhtiyas. The new laws are not an improvement on the existing system but willdestroy the farming sector, he said, asking where the poor farmers (comprising75% of Punjab’s farmers) would go in case of need once the Arhtiyas arereplaced by big faceless corporates. Delhi does not understand agriculture, he furtherremarked, in response to a question on the new FCI policy of direct payment tofarmers, which he said he was not in favour of.
Inany case, said the Chief Minister, Agriculture was a state subject and theCentre had no right to legislate on the matter. He flayed the centralgovernment for trying to destroy the federal structure enshrined in theConstitution by encroaching on state powers.
Lambastingthose spreading misinformation about him being party to the decision on theFarm Laws as member of the Centre’s high-powered committee, he again made itclear that Punjab was not a member when the panel was initially announced andwas included only later, by which time any policy decision had already beentaken at the first meeting (in Punjab’s absence). The second meeting hadfinancial agenda, and at the third, the Agriculture Secretary was present.“Where did I become part of the process?” he asked, reacting to Opposition’sbaseless allegations against him on this count.
Onthe Governor still sitting on the State Bills, the Chief Minister asked, “Arewe a democracy or not?” Punjab took a unanimous decision and the Governor hadno business to sit on the files, which it was his duty to forward to Presidentfor assent under Article 254 (2) of the Constitution. He recalled that in thematter of the Land Acquisition Act, the BJP-led Gujarat government had alsosimilarly passed amendment Bills, which the then President had consented to.