New Delhi: Former Union minister and senior BJP leader Birender Singh has extended his support to the ongoing farmers’ agitation against the three agriculture-marketing laws passed by the Centre.
Singh is the grandson of Sir Chhotu Ram, a prominent politician during the pre-Independence era who championed the interest of farmers. Singh is a member of the BJP’s national executive and his son Brijendra is a sitting BJP MP.
He said it was his moral responsibility to stand with the farmers who he said are “worried” as they fear the new legislations will have an “impact” on their economic condition.
“Whatever I have achieved in politics, would not have been possible had I not been the grandson of Sir Chhotu Ram,” Singh said on Friday.
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“Therefore, it is my moral responsibility to stand with the farmers in their fight today and, therefore, I have decided to support this (farmers’) fight,” said Singh, a prominent Jat leader in Haryana.
Farmers from different parts of the country, including Haryana and Punjab, have been camping at various border points of Delhi for three weeks to demand a repeal of the farm laws.
Farmers worry these laws will eliminate the safety net of the Minimum Support Price (MSP), do away with the mandi system and will leave them at the “mercy of big corporates”.
Singh said that he, along with his supporters, will soon observe a symbolic hunger strike in Haryana’s districts bordering Delhi.
Under the banner of Chaudhary Chhotu Ram Vichar Manch, the former Union minister along with his supporters had sat on a protest at Rohtak on Friday.
“The concept of MSP and APMC was the handiwork of Chaudhary Chhotu Ram. For the first time, he brought in agricultural reforms (during British rule),” Singh was quoted by Indian Express as having said. The newspaper reported that he has called the farmers’ protests “everybody’s agitation.”
(With PTI inputs)