Government treating farmers as enemies: Akhilesh Yadav

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said the arrogance of power has made the government in New Delhi ''blind and deaf'' to the suffering of millions of farmers in the country and it is treating them as ''enemies''.

The government doesn't realise that these humble farmers also have the power to oust arrogant rulers, he said.

Yadav was addressing a 'Kisan Mahapanchayat' organised by his party at Tappal here in support of the ongoing farmers' agitation against the Centre's three new agricultural laws.

The arrogance of power has made the government sitting in New Delhi ''blind and deaf'' to the suffering of millions of farmers in the country, the SP leader told the gathering.

''More than 200 farmers have lost their lives during the agitation but the Modi government is still treating them as if they are enemies at the borders of the country and building barriers,'' Yadav said.

''The government is oblivious to the fact that these humble farmers have the power to remove arrogant rulers from the seat of power,'' he said.

Farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at three border points of Delhi since November 28 last year, demanding the repeal of the farm laws and a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.

Yadav urged the farming community to look back in time and understand how a law enacted by the British Parliament gave indiscriminate powers to the East India Company, which then plundered the wealth of India for its gain.

History is repeating itself. A group of corporates in India is being systematically empowered by the government and enabled to enrich itself at the cost of the people, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

Through the new farm laws, Yadav alleged, the government is pushing farmers into a corner. They will be left at the mercy of a corporate-controlled market.

''The present government is destroying the basic structure which has been built assiduously over the decades to protect the genuine interests of farmers through the provision of minimum support price and 'mandi' networks,'' he said.

Yadav also hit out at the government over the rising fuel prices, saying it is aimed at breaking the back of farmers and the common people.

As if this was not enough, farmers are being indiscriminately booked under different provisions of law to harass them and bring them to their knees, he said.

''The more you humiliate them, the more determined they will become,'' he added.

The government has said the new farm laws will benefit farmers by freeing them from the clutches of the middlemen and ushering in new technology in the sector.

However, farmers say these legislations will remove the safety net of MSP and leave them at the mercy of big corporates.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)