‘For first time in decades, law formulated to benefit small, marginal farmers, workers'

Opposition ‘misleading’ farmers ‘using their shoulders to fire’ at government: PM Modi

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused the Opposition of misleading farmers and using their shoulders to fire at his government over the farm bills for selfish political interests, and asserted that for the first time in decades, the Centre has framed laws that will benefit farmers and workers.

Addressing BJP leaders and workers on the 104th birth anniversary of the party's ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay, Modi launched a powerful defence of farm as well as labour bills, saying the reforms brought in the agriculture sector will benefit the small and marginal farmers the most as 85 out of 100 farmers fall in this category.

The three farm bills –the Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020-- and the labour bills were passed by Parliament during the recent monsoon session.

Amid vehement protests by the Congress and other opposition parties against these bills, Modi hit out at them, saying many governments came to power in states and at the Centre over the decades in the name of farmers and workers, but what did they get nothing; just a web of promises that neither the farmers understood nor the workers.