A day after the all-party meeting at which all national political parties extended support to the Government of India on the Galwan Valley clash issue, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday urged the Centre to change its policy to allow soldiers at the borders to open fire in their own defence and for protecting the nation’s territorial integrity. Making it clear that he did not support sending soldiers to the LAC without weapons, the CM said in his Facebook Live 7th edition of #AskCaptain that the Government of India policy should be that “if they kill one of ours, we should kill five of theirs”. It was absolutely wrong to send soldiers unarmed or not to allow them to defend themselves, he said, adding that when he and his Army colleagues used to go patrolling, during his posting along the LAC for two years, they carried all kinds of weapons. “We are in the nuclear era and we are carrying and being beaten by dandas!” quipped the CM, expressing shock at the fact that 20 Indian soldiers, including four from Punjab, had lost their lives in an attack by lathi-wielding and stone-throwing Chinese, who he asserted simply could not be trusted. Lamenting the demise of four Punjabi soldiers in the Galwan Valley barbarism, the CM said it was extremely unfortunate, even though “as Armymen we are always prepared to take the bullet”. Besides increasing the compensation for their next of kin from Rs 12 lakh to Rs 50 lakh, his government has decided to name schools after the martyrs, said Captain Amarinder, adding that he had spoken to two of the families so far. Sikhs for Justice On the issue of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannu extending support to China, the CM said he was not only propagating but actively involved in promoting separatism and terrorism in India. Asserting that he would not allow Pannu to succeed in his divisive agenda and disturb the state’s peace at any cost, Amarinder dared the pro-Khalistani propagandist to come to Punjab instead of hiding out in other countries to spread his vicious campaign. Declaring his commitment to sustaining Punjab’s peace at all costs, the CM said in the absence of peace, no industry will come to the state, and there will no jobs for our children. The state’s economy will be in a shambles if forces inimical to peace are allowed to spread their fangs, he added. All-party meet Amarinder has convened an all-party meeting on June 24 to evolve a consensus on the Central government’s agriculture-related ordinances, which he said were totally unacceptable to the state as they were against the interests of the farmers and could spell the end of the MSP regime. Describing the ordinances as a precursor to the end of the MSP regime, which the Government of India was clearly aiming to do, the CM said that based on the meeting consensus, a letter would be sent to the Government of India demanding immediate rollback of the ordinances. The CM called for an urgent review of the anti-farmer ordinances issued by the Centre. He expressed the confidence that all parties of Punjab were one in the rejection of these ordinances, which could not only pave the way for ending the MSP support to farmers but also render the Mandi Boards ineffective. The CM said that the Union government’s move to end the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) monopoly through an ordinance, will result in huge losses to the Mandi Board, which currently earns Rs 3,500 to 3,600 crore annually in the form of market fee and rural development fund (RDF). He said any decline in these collections would adversely affect development in rural areas as this money is spent by the board for improvement of roads, link roads and other infrastructure projects, aimed at improving the lives of Punjab’s farmers. Punjab’s farmers had been pivotal to India’s food security and their interests could not be allowed to be compromised at any cost, he asserted. Earlier this week, Amarinder had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking reconsideration of the three ordinances -– for permitting trade in agricultural produce outside the physical boundaries of the set-up of the agricultural market under APMC Act, easing of restrictions under the Essential Commodities Act, and facilitating Contract Farming.
