Protesting Unions's take on PM's speech.
On Friday, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the farmer unions and protestors about the long sighted vision of the government to develop the agriculture sector and deliver the best price of their produce. The speech accused the opposition of using farmers' agony as a weapon to attack the central government. However, the perception of farmer unions didn't go hand in hand with the PM's idea and they alleged that the Prime Minister's words tend to "divide and mislead" the farmers. The protesting unions demanded a guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP). The intentions of the centre were not well received by the farmers as expected instead it widened the divide.
In response to PM's allegation that opposition is making unregulated attempts to forward their agenda by misusing the protests and outrage, farmer leader Abhimanya Kohar asserted that opposition is unable to use their grievances as a stage to publicise their vendetta and accused the government of diverting the protests. PM Modi imposed blame on opposition to hurdle the communication and trust between farmers and centre. If facts, logic and issues of farmers will be ruling the discussions, then the centre will be willing to hold the meetings. In his sneering speech, Modi highlighted that initially the demands of guaranteed MSP were genuine and justified but after intervention of political motives in midst of agitation of farmers led to rise of unreal demands like release of violent criminals and toll free highways.
Kohar denied all the allegations raised by the PM are baseless. "We are never misguided in a month-long protest around Delhi borders. We never offered our stage to politicians rather banned them." After five rounds of negotiations nothing has been achieved to curb down the protest having the ultimate demand of repealing laws. Shiv Kumar Kakka, a senior leader of Sankyut Kisan Morcha questioned the PM by saying, "In public speeches PM stressed on the existence of MSP. So why can't he offer a legal guarantee for this?" All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee secretary Avik Saha also sought for the legal guarantee on MSP.
Saha also highlighted that the PM addressed issues of farmers but never conducted discussions with peasants. Kohar brought out that PM claimed that new laws will benefit farmers but he never mentioned any benefits to peasants. Centre is only declaring these laws as appropriate and fruitful but never proved the existence of any good to prevail in the near future. The laws granted independence to farmers to sell their crops anywhere in the country without involvement of middlemen. This has resurfaced apprehensions among farmers that this will thrash MSP and leave them at mercy of big corporates.
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