Prime Minister Narendra Modi quoted his predecessor Manmohan Singh emphasising that the farm laws are the agriculture reforms aimed at benefiting the farmers, India Today reported.
PM Modi quoted him in his reply to the debate on the President’s Budget Session speech to defend the three farm laws in the Rajya Sabha
Implementation of the farm laws have been put on hold by the Supreme Court and the Modi government has drawn flak from farmers’ unions and the Opposition in the backdrop of thousands of agitators sitting in protest at the Delhi borders for more than two months demanding repeal of the legislation.
Criticising the Congress’s stand of the farm laws, PM Modi quoted Manmohan Singh as saying, “It is our intention to remove all those handicaps which come in the way of India realizing its vast potential as one large common market.”
PM Modi then added, “Manmohan Singhji talked about giving a free market to farmers and make India a large common market… You (the Congress) should be proud that Manmohan Singh talked about it but Modi is accomplishing it.”
He accused the Congress of taking “a U-turn” on the agriculture reforms and commented that he quoted Manmohan Singh, commenting thinking “at least they will listen to him if not me” the farm laws.
He said, “Every government has raised the issue of small-scale farmers, irrespective of whatever they could do or could not. Sharad Pawarji and the Congress too talked about farm laws. But now there is a complete U-turn. You could have cornered us on the process but at the same time, you could have also explained to the farmers that it time to change.
