Aurangabad, March 6:
National president of Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha (ABKS) Ashok Dhavle said if Prime Minister Narendra Modi terms farmers as ‘Andolan Jeevi,’ then Modi-Shah should be considered ‘Corporate Jeevi.’
PM Modi made remarks about farmers protesting against the farm laws as ‘Andolan Jeevi’ (those living off agitation) during his speech last month.
Addressing a press conference at CITU Bhavan here on Saturday, Ashok Dhavle said that our country got freedom because of the agitation of Mahatma Gandhi and Bhagat Singh and farmers are their heirs.
He said that both Modi and Shah want to sell the country for Ambani and Adani and their outlook towards agitating farmers is shameful since they were not called for talks after January 22.
“Farmers agitation is for themselves. The Government at the Centre is trying to malign their image. It is unfortunate that some times, the agitators are termed as ‘Khalistani and agents of Pakistani,” he asserted.
The farmers union leader termed the agitation as non-political.
“Farmers are opposing agriculture laws. The elected Central Government should have taken the feelings of the public and farmers into consideration. But, the PM is not ready to take its notice,” he said.
The farmers' leaders said that the agitation on such a significant level is not across the country in the post-Independence era. “This is a double standard. At one end, they say that they want to sell
the whole country, won another talk side, they talks about ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat,” he pointed out.
Dhavle said that he was in Delhi for the past two and a half months, farmers are determined to agitate against the laws. He also informed the newsmen that the future course of agitation would be decided after March 15.
“Not farmers, but Modi and Shah are belonging to ‘Tukde Tukde Gang (the term used by the BJP to refer to alleged sympathisers of separatists). Both of them are dividing the country in the name of caste and religion,” he added.
Joint secretary of Farm Labourers union Dr Vikram Singh, comrades Manohar Taksal, Pandit Munde, Bhausaheb Jhirpe, Shrikant Phopse, Laxman Sakrudkar and Sachin Pandave were also present the briefing.
Dr Vikram Singh said that BJP was behind the chaos in Delhi on January 26.