Those leading farmers stir today recommended agri laws as reforms for Congress 2019 election manifesto: Shastri's grandson

By Pragya Kaushika
New Delhi [India], January 6 : Sanjay Nath Singh, the eldest grandson of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri who gave the popular slogan 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan', met the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to extend support to farm laws.
Singh, who is the working president and secretary-general of All India Farmers Association, has levelled serious allegations on farmer union leaders leading the agitation against agricultural laws on Delhi's borders.
He revealed that among the leaders sitting on the protest today, there are quite a few who went with him to meetings of prominent political parties to address farmers' concerns and vision for their welfare for their election manifesto.
"These prominent political parties include Congress as well. We have been guiding various political parties with their election manifestos and we mentioned all these points that have been implemented under farm laws. I went to these meetings for 2019 election manifestos," said Singh.
"While we were preparing the manifesto the points that are part of farm laws were recommended by all of us in the manifestos. If these are now implemented today why are they calling it a black law?" he asked.
It is to mention that a delegation of five people, including Shastri's grandson met the Union Minister today. While meeting Tomar to extend support for three farm laws, Singh said that these legislations are progressive.
"Three farms laws are progressive and we have supported them. 80 per cent of our farmers who have less than one hectare are to be cared for. We were thinking about how to take them out of poverty. Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) will be a good model because, through cooperatives, farmers will get collective strength to negotiate and technology to progress. The supply chain will be streamlined," he added.
Singh further reasoned as to how rural India will see development through these farm laws.
"These FPOs and cooperatives will come up in rural India. The laws were to be changed. If these laws were good then why from 1995 till 2016, according to government data, 3.3 lakh farmers committed suicide. Suicides were manifestations of a bad system. They were exploited through Agricultural Produce Market Committees route that had eight tiers to facilitate exploitation. Farmers were restricted to sell their produce," he noted.