Farmers lives would have been saved had PM’s decision to repeal farm laws come earlier, says Sena’s Sanjay Raut

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Pune: Welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to repeal the three controversial farm laws that witnessed massive countrywide farmer protests, Shiv Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut on Friday said that hundreds of lives would have been saved had the government not been so adamant and had withdrawn the three farm laws last year itself.

The Sena leader argued that the central government’s intransigence and apathy at the start of the protests had cost the lives of more than 400 farmers in the form of heart attacks and suicides, but the farmers triumphed in the end.

Raut, along with other leaders of the Sena, NCP and the Congress led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) said that the BJP’s rollback of the laws was without any doubt motivated by fear of defeat in the upcoming polls in five states, particularly in the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

“The sands are shifting beneath the BJP’s feet in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. The farmer is angry… so, the Centre may well have withdrawn their laws for fear of defeat in the upcoming Assembly polls. Yet, even though the decision is very late, the Prime Minister has nonetheless heard the voice of the country for the first time in seven years and I congratulate him on his move,” Raut said, welcoming the PM’s decision as the first real Mann Ki Baat.

Raut further argued that the BJP’s dramatic defeat in the recent by-elections held in 13 states was a rude wake-up call for the party, Raut said, observing that ratcheting petrol rates were slashed for the first time following the BJP’s by-poll debacle.

“Now, these contentious farm laws have been withdrawn as the BJP is alarmed that the fire of the farmers’ movement can spread rapidly… Although these measures are clearly political steps, it must be appreciated that wisdom has finally dawned on the BJP,” said the Sena spokesperson, adding that the unity shown by the opposition parties in backing the farmers was commendable.

Despite the BJP leadership’s constant attempts to discredit the farmer protests, the farmers held firm, the Sena MP said.

“BJP leaders were openly calling these farmers every name from ‘terrorists’, to ‘Khalistanis’ and ‘Pakistanis’ while alleging that the movement had been infiltrated by terrorists and separatists…In the end, the union government had to bend before the farmers’ pressure,” he remarked.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Minister Nawab Malik said that the reversal of farm laws sent a big message to the country that if all opposition parties stand united, any contentious or baneful decision forced upon by the Centre could be reversed.