BENGALURU: On her second day in office as Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer Welfare, Shobha Karandlaje seems to have hit the ground running when she termed the ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi’s borders as “politically motivated”.
Insisting that the three agriculture laws will be beneficial for farmers, the minister said she also hails from a farmer’s family. “As a government, we can hold talks with farmers, respond to their problems and solve them. but we can’t solve politics. The protests are politically motivated. It is not the farmers who are protesting the laws. it is politically motivated persons using farmers as an excuse. These three laws will not be repealed. We will go to farmers and explain the benefits,” she told the media in New Delhi.
Although Karandlaje has made similar comments in the past, her remarks as MoS for farmer welfare has not gone down well with the farming community. “Her comments expose her ignorance about the issue. As a minister, she should be working towards holding talks with farmers and arriving at a solution instead of taunting and ridiculing us,” warned Kodihalli Chandrasekhar, president, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene.