INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Patna: The opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar on Friday declared it will organise a human chain across the state on Saturday to express
solidarity with the farmers agitating against the farm laws.Making the announcement at a press conference here,leader of the opposition
Tejashwi Yadav trained his guns at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, questioning his "silence" on the legislations which "hold out the spectre of
Does he think the agitating farmers are justified in hitting the streets or does he share the BJPs position that they are committing a
mistake?it is hard to believe that Nitish Kumar has his roots in the socialist movement", Yadav fumed.The former Deputy CM deplored the
failure of the chief minister, as also Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to come out with "even a tweet" expressing sympathy for the agitating
government in Bihar for having scrapped APMCs over a decade ago, Yadav alleged "this had reduced farmers to labourers
The central laws will convert them, like cultivators elsewhere, into beggars".Kumar's government had abolished Agriculture Produce Marketing
Committee (APMC) Act in 2006 and also ended the mandi (wholesale markets for agricultural produce) system
He claimed that while his RJD was in power and the state was ruled, first by his father Lalu Prasad and subsequently mother Rabri Devi,
the stir in and around Delhi, the RJD leader said "it is for the first time in the country that the chants of 'Jai Jawan Jai Kisan' have
been jettisoned and jawans are being pitted against kisan (farmers)."It is tragic, since most of our armed forces personnel come from
agricultural backgrounds"
He also alleged that protests were being suppressed in similar fashion by the government in the state and cited the example of a recent
"10 lakh government jobs" is widely believed to have boosted prospect of the RJD as well as the five-party opposition coalition in assembly
polls,also slammed the state government for setting up committees to assess performance of 50 years plus employees with the supposed aim to
retrench those who were not found up to the mark.Representatives from other grand alliance constituents Congress, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(ML)
also spoke on the occasion.
