New Delhi/Chandigarh, August 10
Member of Parliament and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab president, Bhagwant Mann while supporting the Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2021 on Backward Classes (BC) introduced in Parliament on Tuesday, said the AAP has always advocated for the upliftment of the backward classes, including all the downtrodden. He said whenever the Government of India will come up with such a law for the rights of the downtrodden, we will support it. Mann said the Aam Aadmi Party does not protest just to protest.
In a statement issued from the party headquarters, Bhagwant Mann said the AAP had supported the Constitutional Amendment Bill on Backward Classes, but at the same time made it clear to the Union Government that as an agriculture-oriented country, about 90 percent of the other backward classes (OBCs) in India, especially in Punjab, depend on agriculture.
“Thus, the existence of OBC, like the farmers and farm laborers, is also in jeopardy if the three agriculture laws, which are being imposed on ‘annadatas’ by the central government are not repealed or withdrawn. Therefore, the Modi government is urged to withdraw the anti-agriculture black law immediately,” said Mann.
The AAP MP gave the example of Nabha’s agro-industry in Punjab that if the farmers did not survive, then how the Ramgarhia community, which makes tools, tractors and combines for agriculture, would survive. Similarly, how will the employment of thousands of workers in these industries be saved, he said. Mann said corporate houses will cultivate thousands of acres of farms for agriculture, where there will be no need for tools and small tractors made by masons-mechanics from Punjab or other states. As a result, backward classes are also increasingly participating in the farmers’ movement, he added.
Bhagwant Mann further said during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament on Tuesday, he had (Mann) moved an adjournment motion for the 11th time; because without taking action to withdraw the anti-agriculture laws, there should be no work in Parliament. Mann said, “The country is celebrating the 74th anniversary of independence on August 15, but even today our people have not got mental, economic and educational freedom. If freedom was real, even the poor and ordinary children in government schools today would become officers and government offices would be free from corruption.”
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