Farm laws: PM’s announcement “too little too late”, says AITUC

PTI, Nov 19, 2021, 6:05 PM IST

Source: Randeep Maddoke / Wikimedia

New Delhi: The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) on Friday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of repealing three farm laws as ”too late too little”. Modi on Friday morning announced that the government has decided to repeal the three farm laws, which were at the centre of protests by farmers for the past year, and appealed to the protesting farmers to return home.

”AITUC National Secretariat terms the PM’s announcement Too Late, Too little,” an AITUC statement said.

Assuming that the promise made is not a ”chunavi jumla” (election gimmick), and is actually a resolute course correction and carried through Parliament, that leaves out the Electricity (Amendment) Bill and legal guarantee for MSP (minimum support price) which the farmers have been demanding right from the beginning, it added.

AITUC alleged that the farm laws were part of the ”total subversion of egalitarian direction” of the economy. The four labor codes and the all-out privatization plan, including the National Monetisation Pipeline, are the other aspects of the subversion plan, it added.

AITUC urged the Prime Minister to withdraw these policy measures too, instead of ”defending the indefensible”. It also congratulated the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) for leading the agitation and assured its continued support to the farmers’ union.