Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state president and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann has expressed grave concern over the lackadaisical attitude

Chandigarh: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) state president and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann has expressed grave concern over the lackadaisical attitude of the Narendra Modi government at the Central for government is adopting stubborn stance toward the demands of the farmers, currently fighting for their bread and butter, saying the policy of procrastinating on the demands of the farmers was worrying and unfortunate.

Mann said, “The Centre is maintaining a stubborn stance against the farmers and their demands. If the intentions of the government were clear the issue lingering for months could be solved in just seven minutes”

Bhagwant Mann

In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Friday, Bhagwant said, “The government’s intentions towards the farmers’demands do not seem to be doubtful, as its back-to-back meetings with farmer bodies, seven to be precise, without any tangible outcome is doubtful, give credence to the plea.

It is not that the union government does not understand the just demands of the farmers, but seems to be in no hurry to act on them due to certain political compulsions. The delay in revoking the three anti-farmer legislation would spell doom for agriculture and farmers both”.

Hitting out at Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh and prime minister Narendra Modi for spreading misgivings and mistrust about the farmers struggle, Mann said that they were spreading malicious propaganda about the struggle, terming it as a movement of Punjab farmers, signing off that it was the movement of farmers of the entire country, besides other sections of the society, which are likely to be affected by with the implementation of the laws, adding that the Punjab was leading the movement. Mann said the movement had elicited support from other countries of the world.

Bhagwant Mann, Narendra Modi and Captain Amarinder Singh

The AAP MP, in a letter written to the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, has urged him to immediate convene a special session of Parliament, ensuring legal guarantee on the MSP of crops and by rolling back the contentious black laws, adding this was the only way forward to resolve the agrarian stalemate.

Reacting to the returning of the Padam Vibhushan award by former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in protest against the contentious farm laws, Mann said that, instead of returning the award, he (Parkash Singh Badal) would have done better had he exerted pressure on the government not to enact the deadly farm laws being the alliance partners of the NDA government at the Centre.

Mann termed it as a mere political gimmickry to mislead the people of Punjab, especially the farmers, by misrepresenting facts about the farm legislations. He also ridiculed the Badals for the chimera of  all political opposition parties of the country to raise the pitch for the reversal of the  controversial laws.

Answering media queries, Mann said the meeting between Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Union Home Minister Amit Shah ahead of the Union government’s second round of meeting with the farmers, the AAP MP said that the meeting between the duo was ‘sham’ which brought nothing tangible on the ground.

Bhagwant Mann

Mann said that, instead of clearing his stand on the issue, he (Captain) cited national security of the border state of Punjab, saying it was a mere design to derail the farmers’ movement at the behest of Modi and Shah. Mann further said that the CM had bartered the interest of Punjab due to his personal ‘weaknesses’ as he and his family were facing serious cases of corruption with the ED sending notices to them.

Answering another media query over the alleged implementation of the farm laws by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government, Mann dubbed the allegations as a mere malicious propaganda by the BJP, Congress against the AAP government in Delhi, saying that the AAP led by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had been the first to raise a voice against the draconian laws at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi. He said that ever since the Delhi government spurned the demand of the Centre to convert City stadia into makeshift jails for the agitating farmers.