Resolve farmers' stir through dialogue: Cong leader to govt

New Delhi: Urging the government to involve chief ministers of states to resolve the current farmers' agitation against the new agricultural laws, senior Congress leader and former union minister Anand Sharma on Monday said that reforms need to be backed by national consensus.

Speaking at an event, he called upon the government to be more generous in giving out money to all sections affected by the coronavirus pandemic, especially the poor, and provide more stimulus to help revive the economy. Sharma appealed to the government to resolve farm issues through dialogue, not forgetting that farmers are the 'annadatas' that made India self reliant in food and that their sons defend the country's frontiers.

Sharma further said that the country has lost 10 per cent of the GDP and will take another year to come back to 2019-20 levels. "Today what we are seeing is turbulence and protests on the farm laws. Reforms must be participatory, not arbitrary. There must be consultations. Nothing should be rushed through or done without building a consensus. That results in what we are seeing - agitation, conflict and the loss of trust," he said.

"I personally feel that through dialogue, negotiations and persuasion, everything can be resolved. We have chief ministers of states and they must be involved and let's get over this crisis too, together as a nation," the former union minister said.

Earlier, while taking a swipe at the Modi government, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday dubbed the financial package of Rs 20 lakh crore announced during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, as "Covid rhetoric".

In a tweet, Rahul Gandhi said, "Election rhetoric: Rs 15 lakh in bank accounts of everyone. Covid-19 rhetoric: Rs 20 lakh crore package."

In another tweet, Rahuk Gandhi attacked BJP and the RSS after a report surfaced that Facebook did not act on hate content. The former Congress president took to Twitter as he posted a video and said, "Further confirmation that BJP-RSS control Facebook in India."

In a related development, Congress MP and former MoS Agriculture Akhilesh Prasad Singh said that the government should repeal the three farm laws against which farmers have been protesting on Delhi borders.

Singh further said that farmer unions should be called for talks again and the government should go by their opinion.

"The farmers have serious apprehensions about the three laws and protest was bound to happen. The country has been witnessing farmer suicides due to the condition of agriculture sector and there is "sense of fear" among farmers due to the new laws," he said.