The Rashtriya Loktantrik Party on Saturday quit the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance to protest the Centre’s new agricultural laws, ANI reported.
The party’s chief Hanuman Beniwal, who is also a Lok Sabha MP from Nagaur in Rajasthan, said that the agricultural laws were “anti-farmer”. Beniwal added that he will not go ahead and form an alliance with the Congress.
Addressing a farmers’ rally in Shahjahanpur in Alwar district, the 48-year-old leader said he will not support anyone who is against farmers, PTI reported. “I am not stuck with Fevicol with the NDA,” “Today, I separate myself from the NDA.”
Beniwal alleged that he was kept out of the Parliament’s monsoon session in September with a “fudged” coronavirus test report, according to India Today. “The farm laws were brought in my absence,” he said. “If I was present in the Lok Sabha when the farm laws were brought, I would have torn them apart and thrown them away.”
The RLP is the second party after Shiromani Akali Dal to quit the NDA because of the laws, which have triggered massive protests by farmers. The BJP’s ally in Punjab had snapped ties from the NDA in September. SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal had also quit her Cabinet post.
Also read: Farm laws: Protesting farmer leaders ask Centre to resume talks on Tuesday
Meanwhile, former Lok Sabha MP Harinder Singh Khalsa also resigned the from BJP because of its “insensitivity” towards the suffering of the protesting farmers and their families.
Tens of thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting at key entry points to Delhi for a month against the laws now, withstanding the intensifying cold. On Saturday, they accepted the Centre’s offer for talks to end the deadlock over the laws.
The farmers fear the agricultural reforms will weaken the minimum support price mechanism under which the government buys agricultural produce, will lead to the deregulation of crop-pricing, deny them fair remuneration for their produce and leave them at the mercy of corporations.
The government, on the other hand, maintains that the new laws will give farmers more options in selling their produce, lead to better pricing, and free them from unfair monopolies. The law passed in September are meant to overhaul antiquated procurement procedures and open up the market, the government has claimed.
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