Grand Alliance to organise human chain in Bihar against farm laws

The opposition Grand Alliance in Biharon Friday declared it will organise a human chain across thestate on Saturday to express solidarity with the farmersagitating against the farm laws.Making the announcement at a press conference here,leaderof the opposition Tejashwi Yadav trained his guns at ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar, questioning his silence on thelegislations which hold out the spectre of reducing farmersto beggars.We are baffled by the chief ministers reluctance to statewhere he stands on the issue.

The opposition Grand Alliance in Biharon Friday declared it will organise a human chain across thestate on Saturday to express solidarity with the farmersagitating against the farm laws.

Making the announcement at a press conference here,leaderof the opposition Tejashwi Yadav trained his guns at ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar, questioning his ''silence'' on thelegislations which ''hold out the spectre of reducing farmersto beggars''.

''We are baffled by the chief ministers reluctance to statewhere he stands on the issue. Does he think the agitatingfarmers are justified in hitting the streets or does he sharethe BJPs position that they are committing a mistake?......itis hard to believe that Nitish Kumar has his roots in thesocialist movement'', Yadav fumed.

The former Deputy CM deplored the failure of the chiefminister, as also Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to come outwith ''even a tweet'' expressing sympathy for the agitatingfarmers many of whom have lost their lives stagingdemonstrations close to the national capital despite bitingcold.

Flaying the NDA government in Bihar for having scrappedAPMCs over a decade ago, Yadav alleged ''this had reducedfarmers to labourers. The central laws will convert them, likecultivators elsewhere, into beggars''.

Kumar's government had abolished Agriculture ProduceMarketing Committee (APMC) Act in 2006 and also ended themandi (wholesale markets for agricultural produce) system.

He claimed that while his RJD was in power and the statewas ruled, first by his father Lalu Prasad and subsequentlymother Rabri Devi, farmers were better off as they often soldtheir produce at prices higher than the MSP.

Decrying the use of force on many occasions to quell thestir in and around Delhi, the RJD leader said ''it is for thefirst time in the country that the chants of 'Jai Jawan JaiKisan' have been jettisoned and jawans are being pittedagainst kisan (farmers).

''It is tragic, since most of our armed forces personnelcome from agricultural backgrounds''.

He also alleged that protests were being suppressed insimilar fashion by the government in the state and cited theexample of a recent police circular which stated offensivesocial media posts would be treated as ''cyber crime'' tobuttress his point.

Yadav, whose promise of ''10 lakh government jobs'' is widelybelieved to have boosted prospect of the RJD as well as thefive-party opposition coalition in assembly polls,also slammedthe state government for setting up committees to assessperformance of 50 years plus employees with the supposed aimto retrench those who were not found up to the mark.

Representatives from other grand alliance constituents Congress, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(ML) also spoke on the occasion.

PTI NACSNS SNS