Key Points:
- Sharad Pawar, the Nationalist Congress Party’s Chief criticized the Centre for not considering and neither consulting State Governments while passing the three farm laws that have triggered farmer protests since the last one month.
- Pawar said that the government needs to take the protests ‘seriously’ and it was ‘unfair’ on the part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to blame the opposition for the farmers agitation.
- “Agriculture can’t be run sitting in Delhi as it involves hard-working farmers in villages and a bigger responsibility for this subject lies with state governments. So, when a majority of agriculture ministers had some reservations, it was the duty of the central government and mine to take them in confidence and resolve their issues before moving ahead (during UPA),” Pawar told news agency PTI.
On Tuesday, Sharad Pawar, the Nationalist Congress Party’s Chief criticized the Centre for not considering and neither consulting State Governments while passing the three farm laws that have triggered farmer protests since the last one month.
“Agriculture can’t be run sitting in Delhi as it involves hard-working farmers in villages and a bigger responsibility for this subject lies with state governments. So, when a majority of agriculture ministers had some reservations, it was the duty of the central government and mine to take them in confidence and resolve their issues before moving ahead (during UPA),” Pawar told news agency PTI.
The former union minister also said during an interview with PTI that the government needs to take the protests ‘seriously’ and it was ‘unfair’ on the part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to blame the opposition for the farmers agitation.
Pawar said that the roots of the problems were when the Centre passed the agriculture legislations on the basis of their own strength in Parliament, without anyone’s consideration. Saying that the ruling party should have asked leaders with ‘in-depth’ understanding of Agriculture and farmers’ issue, Pawar raised questions on the three-member ministerial group that were negotiation with the unions.
“In politics and democracy, dialogue should take place. How can a government say in a democracy that it won’t listen or it won’t change its line? In a way, the government bulldozed these three bills. If the Centre had consulted state governments and taken them in confidence, then such a situation wouldn’t have arisen,” Pawar said.
“Have they not contributed to the overall food security of the country?” Pawar asked.
Sharad Pawar’s comment came as the farmer protests going on at the borders of Delhi have now entered the second month and all the five rounds of talks have failed to solve the crisis. The center has called for a meeting on Wednesday in Delhi to discuss the three farm laws after farmers’ unions agreed to restart negotiations with the government in a bid to resolve the deadlock.
