After giving a speech on how the three farm laws of the Union Government would benefit farmers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke about new Foreign Destructive Ideology (FDI.)
The term Foreign Destructive Ideology was coined by Mr. Modi after international pop star Rihanna with her tweet, highlighted the Indian protesting farmers. In her tweet, she said “Why aren’t we talking about this? ” The FDI angle came after international celebrities like Rihanna, Greta Thunberg and U.S. Representative Jim Costa, extended support to the protesting farmers and criticised the Indian Government.
On the 8th of February, during the Rajya Sabha session of the Parliamentary Budget Session, Mr. Modi called out those behind the protests as “andolan Jeevi.”
Speaking about the FDI, Mr. Modi said we should be cautious about such ideologies. He said, “We need to be more aware to save the country from such ideology.”
Mr. Modi also appealed to protesting farmers to end their agitation against the new farm laws.
Mr. Modi said, “I invite you to come forward and solve the problems of (the) agriculture sector by making those protesting against the laws understand the reforms…Let’s move forward together.” He further added, “We urge those sitting on the agitation that even though it is their right to agitate, the manner in which the old people are sitting there, is not right. They (agitators) should be taken back. They should end the agitation and we will together find a solution as all doors are open for dialogue. From this House, I again invite them for dialogue.”
In another speech, Mr. Modi asked the opposition to give a chance to the reform and to the progress in the agricultural sector of India. He said, “I feel time cannot wait. Every law requires reforms as we are not ones living in a static state. We should all move together with good reforms.”
Mr. Modi further said, “We should move forward and not take the country behind. All the opposition and the government, protesters should give these reforms a chance and see if this change helps them. We are ready to remove shortcomings.”
Assuring the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and Mandi System, Mr. Modi said, “I assure you that Mandis will be modernised. Not just this, MSP was there, it is there and will remain. Cheap ration given to over 80 crore people will continue. Please do not try to spread misinformation. We also need to strengthen means to increase the incomes of farmers.”
Emphasizing on being aware about the influence of foreign ideologies, Mr. Modi said, we need to be aware of FDI, which is being a problematic issue in India.
Rihanna’s gained a lot of attention from international celebrities and soon the matter was trending worldwide.
However, to stop the same, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the 3rd of February released a detailed statement and spoke about the farmer’s protest.
Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the MEA,released the statement through Twitter.
Mr. Srivastava cleared the Central Government’s stand in the farmers protest and said, the Government of India (GoI) took several initiatives to negotiate with farmers.
Mr. Srivastava said, “A very small section of farmers in parts of India have some reservations about these reforms. Respecting the sentiments of the protestors, the Government of India has initiated a series of talks with their representatives. Union ministers have been part of the negotiations, and eleven talks have already been held. The Government has even offered to keep the laws on hold, an offer iterated by no less than the Prime minister of India.”
The Twitter post was made after international celebrities and opposition blamed the Central Government for neglecting the farmers of India, who have been protesting for more than 2 months.
The MEA said the Government is looking forward to resolving the issue and even conducted rounds of talks to resolve the matter.
However, all the negotiation talks and meetings were fruitless, as the farmers refused to negotiate and demanded scrapping of the three farm laws.
Since September, the Central Government passed farm laws, became a controversial topic in India. Thousands of farmers from Haryana and Punjab marched to Delhi and started a protest at three the borders, including the Tikri and Singhu borders in New Delhi.
The protest which started from the 25th November and completed 75th day on the 8th of February.
Stay tuned for further updates.
