Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren described the Centre's decision to roll back the controversial farm laws as having come too late and demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi accord martyrdom status to all farmers who died during the protracted protests over one and a half years.
In response to Modi’s surprise announcement of repealing the three contentious farm laws, Hemant told reporters that it came to him as "hasyaspad (hilarious) and durbhagyapurn (unfortunate). “This (the announcement) has come too late. First, you tried to suppress them, then throttled their throats, and when everything failed, you were forced to take back the three laws. Now, the party (BJP) has begun a campaign to propagate how great and sensitive the PM is. Hence, I call this line of action unfortunate. But, the Centre’s U-turn is yet another testimony that democracy in this country is still alive,” he said.
Hemant demanded the Prime minister must immediately give Rs 5 crore compensation to each family of deceased farmers _ those who died during the protests in the last year. "Accord them the status of martyrdom, provide government jobs to their kin and rollback all FIRs and legal cases against them (farmers),” the chief minister said and advised the Prime Minister to provide compensation for crop losses to all farmers of the country.
“Most importantly," he added, "the Union agriculture minister must be asked to resign,” he said.
Hemant agreed when asked if the Modi government's change of heart was prompted by the upcoming Uttar Pradesh and Punjab assembly polls. "Certainly. BJP and several senior leaders of the party had realised that it was hurting them big time. Hence, they were forced to take back the black laws."
The Hemant Soren-led JMM-Congress-RJD coalition government had aired its opposition to the three farm laws ever since they were passed by Parliament last year by calling them unconstitutional. All coalition parties of the state had organised, and extended support to, protests and demonstrations in favour of a rollback of the laws.
