First time such arrogant govt in power, must withdraw farm laws unconditionally: Sonia Gandhi
New Delhi: In a scathing attack on the Centre over the farmers' protests, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday said that for the first time since independence such an "arrogant" government has come to power that cannot see the sufferings of 'annadatas', and demanded that the new farm laws be immediately withdrawn unconditionally.
In a statement in Hindi, she said governments and their leaders who ignore public sentiments in a democracy cannot govern for long and it is now quite clear that the protesting farmers will not bow in the face of the Centre's policy of "tire and pushover".
"There is still time, the Modi government should leave the arrogance of power and immediately withdraw the three black laws unconditionally to end the agitation of the farmers who are dying in the cold and rain. This is Rajdharma and a true tribute to the farmers who have lost their lives," Gandhi said.
The Modi government should remember that democracy means protecting the interests of the people and the farmers-workers, she said.
"Along with the people of the country, I am also disturbed seeing the condition of the 'annadatas' who have been agitating for 39 days at the borders of Delhi in the bitter cold and rain in support of their demands," Gandhi said.
In the wake of the government's apathy, so far, more than 50 farmers have lost their lives with some even taking the step of committing suicide due to the government's neglect, she said.
"But neither the heartless Modi government relented nor the Prime Minister or any other minister uttered a word of consolation till today. I pay my respects to all the deceased farmer brothers and pray to the Lord to give their families the strength to bear this sorrow," the Congress president said.
"Since independence, this is the first such arrogant government that has come to power in the history of the country that, leave alone people, cannot even see the sufferings and struggles of 'annadatas'," she said.
It seems that ensuring profits for a handful of industrialists has become the main agenda of this government, Gandhi alleged.
The Congress has been seeking the repeal of the three new farm laws, alleging that they will ruin farming and the farmers. The Congress is also supporting the farmers' agitation against the legislations.
After the sixth round of formal negotiations on Wednesday, the government and farm unions reached some common ground to resolve protesting farmers' concerns over rise in power tariff and penalties for stubble burning, but the two sides remained deadlocked over the main contentious issues of the repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP).
Braving the cold, thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, are protesting at various borders of the national capital for more than a month against these laws.
The government has presented these laws as major agriculture sector reforms aimed at helping farmers and increasing their income, but the protesting unions fear that the new legislations will leave them at the mercy of big corporates by weakening the MSP and mandi systems.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
