TRS claiming credit for repeal of farm laws laughable: BJP

Hyderabad: Former MLC and BJP Tamil Nadu Co-in-charge Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said Opposition parties were trying to extract their pound of credit, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the Centre's decision to repeal the three farm laws in a nationwide broadcast on Friday.

Addressing the media here on Saturday, Ponguleti said that the prime minister showed political statesmanship by repealing the three farm laws, which his government had introduced for the benefit and empowering farmers and also to free them from middlemen in the country.

"But the Centre could not convince certain sections of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Western UP on the objectives of the farm laws. Considering several issues associated with and interests of the farmers the Centre has come forward to repeal the laws as the Centre was pro-farmer," he added

Ponguleti said however, the Congress and Left parties from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and above all the TRS from Telangana have claimed credit for the repeal of farm laws by the Centre. He said this had exposed the political parties' running false propaganda calling the farm laws as black laws and organising misleading and venomous campaigns provoking farmers to use them as pawns for political mileage. 'Thousands of farmers ended their lives unable to pay debts under the UPA regime. Maharashtra stood first, followed by Telangana and Andhra Pradesh second in the list of farmers' suicides, he pointed out.

The BJP leader said the TRS' claiming credit for the repeal of the farm laws due to its Maha Dharna was laughable. He said the Maha Dharna was related to paddy procurement and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had written a letter to the PM on the same. "How paddy procurement is related to the repeal of farm laws? How could KCR claim credit for the same," he questioned.

He asked the TRS to end 'Khiladi Politics' and took strong exception to the TRS chief calling surgical strikes on the terror hubs in Pakistan as drama. Reminding that Chief Minister KCR had earlier banned Dharna Chowk and resented the protests of RTC workers, students, unemployed citing it was a hurdle for the development, Ponguleti noted that the same CM had landed at the same spot to stage dharna.

Alleging that TRS supreme was unable to digest his party's defeat in Huzurabad and to divert people's attention, he had gone to the extent of provoking party cadre to restore to violence and attacks on the State BJP chief's visit to the procurement centres.

Ponguleti wondered how could the TRS chief, who had ordered to lathi charge farmers, handcuffed and sent them to jail, was talking about farmers' welfare.

He reminded the former Congress Chief Minister of Punjab Amarinder Singh welcoming the Centre's decision as courageous. He criticised that the Telangana government had opened paddy procurement centres nominally and the paddy brought to these procurement centers was being exposed to unseasonal rains. But, the TRS government failed to set up control rooms and depute special officers at district-level to speed up procurement, he criticised.