CHANDIGARH:Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has demanded an unconditional apology from Union Minister Raosaheb Patil Danve for misleading the nation on the farm ordinances issue from the floor of the House in a clear and complete breach of Parliamentary principles and propriety.
Rejecting as totally incorrect Danve’s statement in the Lok Sabha yesterday about Punjab being on board the anti-farmer ordinances, the Chief Minister said the remarks of the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution were aimed at defaming the Congress and its government in the state. PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar also slammed the Union Minister for violating the sanctity of Parliament with his false statement on the issue in the House on Monday, and termed it an attempt to denigrate the Congress government in Punjab with misleading information.
The Chief Minister said, in a statement, that at no point did the high-powered committee make any suggestion about bringing these anti-farmers ordinances, which the Centre introduced on the sly amid the pandemic and has now placed in Parliament for enactment through false pretensions.
The minister should apologise immediately and unequivocally for presenting false facts in the Lok Sabha, said Captain Amarinder, describing the statement in Lok Sabha as undemocratic and unethical, and a violation of the parliamentary principles. The Parliament is the shrine for upholding the ideals of democracy and any attempt to defy these principles is dangerous for the nation’s Constitutional foundations, he added.
The Chief Minister said his government has consistently and persistently opposed any move to dilute the rights and interests of the farmers, not only in the high-powered committee on agricultural reforms but in the state Assembly and on all public forums. It was his government which had initiated the resolution in the Vidhan Sabha rejecting the ordinances, he pointed out, adding that he personally had written twice to the Prime Minister seeking the withdrawal of the anti-farmer and anti-farmer legislations that would spell the death-knell of the farming community in Punjab.
The report of the high-powered committee, of which Punjab was made a member weeks after it was constituted, nowhere suggested any ordinance or central law to be enacted by the Government of India, said the Chief Minister, emphatically rejecting any claim to the contrary.