CHANDIGARH: Former Punjab minister and Congress MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu attacked his own government at the tractor rally led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at Moga on Sunday to protest against the Centre’s new farm laws.
Sidhu's participation in the rally came three days after All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat met him at his residence in Amritsar.
After the meeting, Rawat said the cricketer-turned-politician would attend the tractor rallies.
Addressing the rally, Sidhu said that the Punjab government should give Minimum Support Price (MSP) on pulses and oilseeds and set up infrastructure for storage of crops.
The government should provide storage and other facilities for the farmers and should take their responsibility and fight for them, he added.
When Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, the cooperative and jail minister, asked him to cut short his address as others have also to speak, Sidhu replies saying “let me speak as for more than a year I have not been allowed to speak”.
Slamming the BJP-led NDA government in Centre, Sidhu termed the contentious agriculture laws as an attack on India’s federal structure and diversity.
“They are trying to impose the failed system from Europe and the US on us. The capitalists are running this country and the benefits to farmers are labelled as subsidies whereas relaxations worth lakhs of rupees given to the rich are called incentives. They are robbing our rights,’’ he said.
These new legislations would adversely affect five lakh labourers and 30,000 commissioned agents, Sidhu claimed.
“When India needed the Green Revolution,. Punjab’s farmers provided grains to the entire country and fed 80 crore people. But today the government is trying to kill the farmer and his income,’’ he said.
"This government intends to give everything to capitalists. I protest the black laws with my black turban," he said.
Where would farmers go when the mandi system is "snatched", Sidhu posed, adding the farmers were on the roads because they felt threatened that their MSP would be "taken away" with these new laws.
"How can small farmers fight the capitalists? This country is being run by capitalists," he alleged.
Alleging that the Centre waived Rs 5 lakh crore of capitalists every year, he asked, "What was given to farmers? Nothing".
Sidhu expressed displeasure over protesters not being allowed to cross Haryana and water cannons were used against them.
He said these new legislations would adversely affect five lakh labourers and 30,000 ‘arthiyas’ (commission agents).
Sidhu MLA from Amritsar (East), had been at loggerheads with CM Amarinder Singh and had stayed away from all party activities ever since resigning as cabinet minister last year.
However, last month, he had staged a protest against the farm bills in Amritsar but without Congress' flags.
He had described the farm bills as an "attack on the federal structure" and had also said these "black laws" would "ruin" the farming community.
The MLA from Amritsar East seat was stripped of key portfolios in the cabinet reshuffle in June last year.
The chief minister had divested Sidhu of the Local Government and Tourism and Cultural Affairs Departments and allotted him the power and new and renewable energy portfolio.
However, Sidhu had refused to assume the charge and resigned.
The tension between the Punjab chief minister and Sidhu had come out in the open in May last year when Singh had blamed Sidhu for the "inept handling" of the Local Government Department, claiming it had resulted in "poor performance" of the Congress in urban areas in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Singh had taken umbrage at Sidhu's "friendly match" jibe during electioneering in Bathinda on May 17.
Sidhu had allegedly cornered the Congress government in the state over the issue of the desecration of religious texts, questioning why no FIR was lodged against the Badals, who ran the previous government in the state.
(With PTI Inputs)