Punjab CM Appeals PM To Accept Farmers’ Demands

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept the demands of the farmers saying that the new farm laws were completely wrong.

Appealing to meet the demands of the farmers', Singh said that the elderly farmers were not sitting at the Delhi border for themselves but for their children and the future generations.

He further added, "The farm laws are completely wrong as they are against federalism since agriculture is a state subject under Schedule 7 of the Constitution." He appealed to Modi to fulfill the demands of the agitating farmers, who are sitting at Delhi's borders for the past two months. He hoped that the tractor parade of the farmers passes off as peacefully as their agitation has been so far, reported PTI.

"Be peaceful and the country is with you," Singh said, declaring that his heart was with the farmers amid the Republic Day celebrations, the report stated.

He said that 122 MPs in the UK had spoken in favour of the farmers and other countries had also supported the protests as the farmers had been peaceful all along.

Alleging that the Centre had deliberately kept Punjab out of the high-powered committee initially as they knew that the voices of protest would rise from here, the chief minister said that "these voices will continue to rise" till the farmers' interests were secured.

Punjab was included in the committee only after he personally wrote to the Centre on the issue, Singh said, making it clear that neither he nor his government were ever asked or consulted about the "black" farm laws.

The chief minister lamented that he never thought he would see a day when Punjab's farmers, who had made the nation self-sufficient in food by ushering in the green revolution, would be forgotten in this manner.

Pointing out that 20 percent of the country's Army comprised Punjabis, the chief minister accused the NDA government of not bothering about the families of the state's soldiers.