India News | BJP Passed Farm Laws to Help Its 'crony Capitalist Friends': Congress' Surjewala
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Congress on Friday alleged that the Modi government through the new agriculture laws was trying to help its "crony capitalist friends" and not farmers.
New Delhi, Dec 4 (PTI) The Congress on Friday alleged that the Modi government through the new agriculture laws was trying to help its "crony capitalist friends" and not farmers.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the BJP's intentions of helping farmers were doubtful as the chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have said they would take action against anyone from outside their states who sells farm produce there.
"On one hand PM Modi says farmers can sell their produce anywhere in the country while chief ministers of BJP-ruled states like ML Khattar, Shivraj Chouhan say that if any farmer enters their state they would put them behind bars," he said during a virtual event held on Facebook.
Surjewala was explaining the Congress' stand against the Centre's three farm laws.
"This is the double speak and duplicity of the Modi Government and the BJP only wants to help crony capitalist friends and there are two facets to it," he said.
Giving an example of the alleged discrepancies in the new laws, Surjewala said it will be "impossible" for a farmer to transport rice from Haryana to Hyderabad.
"The new middle man, or class of middlemen, 4 or 5 crony capitalist friends who will own silos and buy from the farmer at whatever price they deem fit. They will store it in their silos, they will then hire trucks and trains and sell it at an appropriate price by taking 500-2,000-5,000% profit. That is the first facet," he said.
The Congress leader said the farmers do not have the capacity to travel and carry their crops and 85 per cent of farmers anywhere in the country currently have access to the closest APMC.
This is the reason why the Congress spoke about raising the number of APMCs or the grain markets, he said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)