PM Narendra Modi surrendering farmers interests to US, slams CITU

Patancheru: State CITU leader Panduranga Reddy on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of surrendering the interests of farmers and democracy to Americans after succumbing to charms of US president Donald trump, who had arrived during the day in Ahmedabad on a two-day visit. He was speaking after CITU activists burnt an effigy here during a protest.

The protestors raised 'Trump go back' slogans. Addressing the participants in the demonstration, Reddy claimed that 'both Trump and Modi had lost people's support and that they were resorting to propaganda that they were doing something for the benefit of people. He pointed out that Modi had tried to hide poverty from Trump by building a wall en route, while hitting out at PM for seeking to pledge the country to American interests.

The CITU leader contended that the proposed Indo-US agreement would damage the interest of Indian farmers and to ruin the indigenous poultry and dairy industries. He alleged that the agreement was also intended to dump piled up US arms in India. Reddy charged that Trump had brought pressure on Modi to disinvest in profit-making companies like LIC. He claimed that the US President 'who is losing people's support, was seeking to gain backing of NRIs in America and was making the trip not out of love for india.

'The government's pro-US policies will harm the country's interests and will result in loss of support of friendly countries. This is not at all good for India's foreign policy,' the CITU leader asserted. He appealed to people to understand the BJP-led government's misleading policies by raising nationalist slogans.

Among those who joined the protest were CITU district vice-president Narsimha Reddy, leaders M Srinivas Rao, Nageswar Rao, Suresh, Nagendra Prasad and Anjaneyulu.