NEW DELHI: Throwing his full weight behind the ongoing farmer agitation, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday urged the Centre to immediately agree to all the demands of the farmers and guarantee the minimum support price for their crops. He also hit out at Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh saying that he was speaking “BJP’s language” by accusing him of ‘implementing’ the new farm laws in Delhi.
Attacking both the BJP-led Centre and the Congress-led Punjab governments, Kejriwal explained the limited role his government has in implementing these laws. “These three laws are passed by the Centre, The moment President (Of India) signs these ordinances, they start getting implemented across all the states in the nation. It is not the prerogative of any state to implement or not implement these laws,” he said.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has come under attack from Opposition parties for notifying one of the three new farm laws in the national capital. Attacking the Punjab chief minister for playing “dirty politics” on the issue, Kejriwal claimed that Singh had many chances to stop the farm bills but he did not do so.
“The people of Punjab want to know why did Captain Sahab (Amarinder Singh) not act against these bills at that time? Two years ago, the BJP formed a committee to formulate and examine these bills, and he was a member of that committee,” alleged Kejriwal. “The Punjab CM accused me of passing the three black laws. How can he do such low-level politics at such a crucial time,” he said.
The AAP leader further questioned the intentions of his Punjab counterpart, “Are you (Singh) under the pressure of these very same people because of which you are making these false allegations against me, abusing me, and talking on behalf of the BJP? Is this your friendship with the BJP?” Kejriwal, who is the national convener of AAP, urged his party volunteers to not indulge in politics and serve the farmers.
“Be a sevadaar, we do not have to politicise this struggle,” he said.
The Delhi chief minister expressed anguish over protesting farmers being called “terrorists and anti-national” by some people. “I cannot imagine what the soldiers on the border must be going through, whose parents are being called terrorists,” he said.
Scores of farmers are camping at different entry points to the national capital. They are demanding that the central government makes changes to the new farm laws which, they accuse, were passed to give benefit to big corporate. Protesters have dubbed the three laws as “anti-farmer” claiming they infringe upon their basic right to sell their produce at MSP.
‘Received a lot of calls to allow makeshift jails’
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday alleged that he was “under a lot of pressure” and has “got several calls” to allow police to convert city stadiums into makeshift prisons for farmers. “The Centre had the plan of putting the farmers into jails as soon as they reached Delhi, but we refused to convert the nine stadiums into jails. The Centre is very upset with me for this,” he claimed. The AAP government has rejected Delhi Police’s request seeking permission to use nine stadiums as makeshift jails to shift agitating farmers
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