PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who earlier advocated engaging farmers opposed to the three agricultural laws in dialogue, on Friday declined to comment on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise announcement to withdraw the three contentious laws.
“The central government got the farm laws cleared in Parliament. It was the decision of the PM. Now, he himself has announced that they will be repealed in the next session of Parliament, PM explained it very clearly. The decision is his, there cannot be any reaction to this,” the chief minister said at Patna airport on his return from the national capital Delhi.
The chief minister’s ‘no comment’ approach on PM Modi’s televised address was seen as an attempt to distance himself from the contentious laws that he and his party, Janata Dal (United), supported. Kumar did, however, insist all along that the controversy around the three laws did not impact farmers in Bihar because the state did away with the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) more than a decade ago and put in place an alternative system.
Like many others in the ruling alliance, Nitish Kumar also attributed the protests against the three farm laws to “misconceptions” and asked that the Centre to engage farmers in a dialogue to clear their apprehensions. In all, the Centre and farm union leaders held 11 rounds of discussions, the last one in January 2021 after the Supreme Court stayed implementation of the contentious farm laws
On February 8, Nitish Kumar told reporters that the central government will clarify the benefits of the new laws to farmers.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad tweeted his congratulations to farmers on the success of their democratic and peaceful agitation and lambasted the “pro-capitalist government” for efforts to malign the image of farmers by branding them as terrorists, Khalistanis, and anti-nationals. “The nation is run by restraint, decency, tolerance and based on prudent and all-encompassing decisions with democratic values, and not through the wrestling,” said Prasad.
Senior Congress leaders such as Bihar chief Madan Mohan Jha underlined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s continued support to the farmers and counted his relentless opposition as one of the reasons why the centre was forced to concede to the farmers’ demands.
Opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav said that it was a victory of farmers and the whole of India. “The Centre’s decision to take back the law can be seen as the defeat of capitalists, their patrons and egoist Nitish-Narendra Modi regime,” he added.
CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, saluting the farmers’ movement, said the Modi regime has been pushed back by the heroic struggle and sacrifices of the farmers.
