Farm bills: Those opposing them want to stall progress, says PM Modi at SVAMITVA event

Lashing out at those opposing the farm legislations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday said those who had ruled through a nexus of middle men were criticising the reforms as they were concerned about their own interests rather than those of the farmers or the poor.

Speaking at the event where property cards were distributed under the government’s SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) scheme, the prime minster hit out at the Congress, which has been spearheading the protests against the recent farm laws, calling them anti-farmer, and said these were the very people who neglected the country’s villages for six decades.

Also read: PM Modi’s top quotes from SVAMITVA event

“It is said that India’s aatma (soul) rests in its villages. But it is also correct that villages were neglected. The people who were in power for a long time, they talked big, but left villages and poor uncared for, amid difficulties. I will not do this. I will work for you. For the Dalit, poor, oppressed and deprived. Because we don’t want them to be dependent on anyone,” he said.

The prime minister said that people in villages did not have banking accounts, electricity, toilets, piped water supply or gas connections. Many were homeless and now 2 crore people have got concrete houses. “Those remaining will also get it and I am working towards it,” he said.

“To keep villages deprived has been the basis of politics of some. We have started the campaign to free the poor of deprivation. Some people feel that if the villages, poor, farmers, tribals develop, who will bow before them? Their shop will shut down,” Modi said.

He alleged that these were the people who wanted the problems to continue. “These people now have a problem with the historic agricultural reforms. They are worried but their worries are centered on their interests. Generation after generation, with a huge system of dalals and bribe-seekers, they had created their own ‘maya-jaal’(web of illusions). People of the country have begun dismantling their maya-jaal,” said the prime minister.

Modi said the country has begun recognising those who looted it and as a result these people were blindly opposing everything. He, however, added that the farmers were not following such people because they had understood their reality.

Speaking about the SVAMITVA scheme, the prime minister said despite having land and house, many people did not have the papers. Now they will get papers and can get loans from banks because of the Svamitva Yojana, he said. With technologies like drones, every village can get an accurate land record. It will also end disputes and further development, he added.