Madhya Pradesh Congress president on Thursday alleged that the Centre wants to privatise the farm sector with its three new agri-marketing laws, which are being opposed by thousands of cultivators.
Talking to reporters here while announcing the launch of his party’s protest against the government and an awakening drive for farmers which will continue till January 23, Nath claimed the “RSS and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh were votaries ofprivatisation since the beginning”.
“The (present) government wants to privatise the farm sector with the three agri-marketing laws,” he alleged. The farmers of Madhya Pradesh are simple and the three new laws are against their interests, he claimed.
Thousands of farmers have been camping at several Delhi border points for over 40 days, demanding repeal of the new farm laws and a legal guarantee on minimum support price (MSP) for their crops, besides other issues.
Nath alleged that the “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its political branches - the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and the BJP - favour a capitalists-driven market economy and are votaries of privatisation”. He equated the three new laws to a “springboard made for industrialists” to venture into the “lucrative” farm produce market.
In contrast, the Congress was a votary of socialism and that is why PSUs were set up under the Congress’s rule earlier, the former Union Minister said.
“Big corporate and multinational companies are eyeing the farm produce market which is of Rs 15 lakh crore to Rs 18 lakh crore in India. The three laws have been brought for these companies to foray into this sector,” Nath alleged.
In contrast, the Congress has always favoured a “socialist economy and ideology”, he asserted. “The RSS and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh opposed public sector undertakings and big dams after Independence. They had opposed PSUs like the Steel Authority of India, the National Thermal Power Corporation, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and the Indian Oil Corporation,” he alleged.
-PTI
