Azad has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to repeal the farm laws and restore statehood to J&K
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and senior Congress leader, on Wednesday raised the issue of protesting farmers in the House by recollecting how the Congress government had interacted with farmers’ demands when they were in power.
He requested the government to repeal the three controversial farm laws.
Speaking during the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President’s address, Azad said, “Farmers are ours, not of the Congress, but of you and all of us.”
“We are with you when it comes to fighting against China and Pakistan. But why fight the farmers?” he asked, according to a report in The Hindu.
While condemning the Red Fort violence on Republic Day during the tractor march of farmers, Azad said that those involved should be given strict punishment. But those who are innocent, should not be implicated in false cases.”
Azad, referring to the sedition case filed against Shashi Tharoor, said, “How can a person who has been MoS External Affairs and represented India all over the world be a traitor of the State?”
The Yogi Adityanath government of Uttar Pradesh slapped non-bailable sedition, conspiracy and other charges under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and IT Act against Congress MP Tharoor as well as six senior journalists and others for conspiring to spread misinformation for inciting farmers and promoting enmity.
Azad also raised the J&K statehood issue and the law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370.
“I never heard Atal Bihari Vajpayee or any other BJP leader demanding that Jammu and Kashmir be split into two. There was a demand for UT in only one district of Ladakh (Leh), not Kargil,” Azad said, media reports said.
Azad further said that the law and order was 100 times better when Jammu and Kashmir was a state.
“Developmental works were 100 times better when there was a state government, even when it had the BJP-PDP government,” he said.
Azad also spoke about tourism in J&K after the bifurcation of the state and said tourism and education had been finished.
“The internet connection is often cut off, and even when available, it is 2G. In the age of 4G connectivity, how can we do anything with 2G? This is affecting the education of students, especially during this pandemic,” Azad said, and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to restore statehood to J&K.
(With media inputs)
