BJP exposes Congress' hypocrisy on Farm Laws as Javadekar pulls up neta's tweet from 2010

Congress' hypocrisy on the Centre's Farm Laws was exposed by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday as the latter shared a tweet of a Congress neta from 2010 supporting private sector's entry in agriculture. The Congress party has been up-in-arms against the three Farm Laws passed by the PM Modi-led NDA government and has demanded the 'black laws' to be repealed. However, Congress' repeated attempts to malign the Centre and the farm laws has been met with a counter by the ruling BJP and the latest setback to the party comes after Union Minister Javadekar exposed the hypocrisy. 

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Javadekar exposes Congress' hypocrisy on Farm Laws

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar shared Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's tweet from 2010 expressing the 'need for the private sector to get into grain storage' in India. This is in sharp contrast to the stance maintained by the Congress on the Farm Laws currently to not allow private players in the agriculture sector. In his tweet in 2010, Shashi Tharoor claimed that 'we (India) wasted more wheat annually to storage and distribution losses than how much Australia grew', citing the need for private sector to move into grain storage. 

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Congress 'draconian provision' for farmers in Punjab

On Saturday, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi claimed that the Centre's farm laws were not only dangerous for the farmers and labourers, but were perilous to the nation and its citizens. The Congress MP from Wayanad demanded the Centre to repeal all three farm laws and noted that the 'peaceful' protest of the 'annadatas' was in the interest of the nation. However, Rahul Gandhi was slammed by BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia as the latter demanded an answer from the Congress government in Punjab regarding the draconian provisions of the contract farming law enacted in the state. 

The contract farming law enacted in Punjab provides for the farmers to be liable to pay Rs 5 lakh fine or face a jail term of 5 months if they do not honour their contract. Slamming the Congress government for enacting laws with draconian provisions, BJP's Gaurav Bhatia asked Rahul Gandhi when the Captain Amarinder Singh-led government was going to repeal the 'black law'. Earlier, BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya also shared a document on the contract farming law in Punjab and noted that the Centre had no such punitive provisions for the farmers in the three Farm Laws that were passed. 

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What are the Centre's farm laws?

The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 aims at freeing the farmers from the constraints of the state Agriculture Produce Market Committees whereby they would be able to sell their produce anywhere. Meanwhile, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 protects and empowers farmers to engage with processors, wholesalers, large retailers, exporters for farm services. This entails the provision of contract farming. The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 specifies that the supply of foodstuffs including cereals, pulses, potato, edible oilseeds, and oils shall be regulated only under exceptional circumstances.

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