HYDERABAD: Terming the contentious Farm Bills as a “direct attack on the State’s rights, federalism and Constitution”, TRS Parliamentary Party leader K Keshava Rao opposed these in Rajya Sabha on Sunday. The party’s Lok Sabha floor leader, Nama Nageswara Rao, called it a ‘Black Day’ for farmers.
Keshava Rao took the Centre to task for not consulting the State governments and farmers. “The Minister says its a historic Bill, why [call it] historic — it’s a revolutionary Bill as you have changed the character of this country. The cultural country, whose culture is agriculture, is now being sold to the corporate sector,” Keshava Rao said.
Alleging that the Centre is converting the agricultural country into a corporate land, he said, “You are saying the freedom to sell is given to the farmer, but you are not giving him the freedom to fix the price. Please understand the conditions and realities of the farmer. For centuries, he [farmer] has been saying ‘Sir, Sarkar, Dhora’, and what not. Do you think he will be on a level-playing field with corporates while negotiating the price?”
Stating that agriculture is a state subject, Keshava Rao said, “If you think you have the right to bring in the legislation because you are elected to the House, then we too are elected and do not support it. The Constitution says this subject belongs to us [State governments], not to you”. He said the Centre can only intervene in the subjects that are in the Concurrent List. After the passage of the Bills, Nama said this will go down in history as a ‘Black Day’ for farmers. Alleging that the rules were not followed while passing the contentious Bills, he said, “Fearing that the Bills will get rejected if put to vote, they (the Centre) passed it via vote gagging democracy.”
Nama said, “The country will flourish only if its farmers prosper. There is a need to protect them as they feed 130 crore people. We have moved a no-confidence motion against Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Harivansh Singh. How can he continue the proceedings when the no-confidence motion is pending against him?”