Repeal farm law or face ouster, warns leader of AP farmers

Kadapa: The AP Farmers Association district general secretary Gali Chandra has warned that the people would oust the Modi government if the new agricultural laws that “bind the agricultural sector to corporate companies” are not repealed.

Copies of these laws were set on fire in Palempalli in Kadapa city on Wednesday as part of a call by the All India Kisan conflict coordinating committee.

Gali Chandra said PM Modi's understanding with corporate giants Ambani and Adani had hidden political and economic agendas as “cultivation agreement and crop storage beyond limits were brought forward simultaneously.”

He said the agriculture sector would be monopolised by corporate companies if the new laws are enforced. These entities’ ownership of seeds, fertilizers, crops and land would increase and the farmers would be exploited to the hilt. “The black market system would increase and the prices of essential commodities reach unaffordable levels.”

The farmer leader accused the Modi government of unleashing a vicious campaign against the farmers’ movement in Delhi. He said it was wrong to say that the movement was infiltrated by Khalistan militants.

“Sadly, the traitors who killed Mahatma Gandhi are now talking ill of the peasant struggle. Despite the Supreme Court intervention and appointment of a committee to hold talks with farmers, the adamance on the part of the central government meant the government was bent on harming the farmers.”

He said the "struggle would continue until the new agricultural laws are repealed, the recommendations of the Swaminathan committee are implemented, the minimum support price is legalized and the electricity privatization bill is withdrawn.”

AP farmers association district vice president S. Shivashankar Reddy, farmer leaders P. Chandrasekhar Reddy, Mekala Jayanna of Chennai, Obulesu, Bhushanam, Subbarayudu and others participated in the programme.