Former CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy today criticised the BJP-led union government for "harassing" the farmers in the country through its new agriculture laws, and demanded that the three laws be repealed immediately.
Speaking at a protest organised by the Left parties in Telangana, the leader asked the Centre to repeal the new laws, claiming that they would help only the corporate sector and leave the farmers of the country impoverished.
He also accused the union government of attempting to scuttle the MSP system, and of neglecting the needs of the country's farmers.
Urging the Centre to hold talks with the protestors, he said that it was the Centre's responsibility to resolve the current stalemate between itself and the protestors, and that if it failed to do that, the ongoing protests would only intensify.
The CPI leader then targeted Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for his "double standards" on the issue.
He asked the CM, who had been very vocal in his support of the farmers, why he had not met the protesting famers when he had
gone to Delhi recently.
"KCR managed to meet the Prime Minister and several union ministers, but he did not meet the farmers he has been claiming to support. If he really was committed to their cause, he would have met them too," Reddy said.
He then demanded that the Centre and the state government both stop "playing with the lives" of the farmers.
CPI state secretary Chada Venkat Reddy also slammed the Modi government for its new laws, and demanded that they be withdrawn to protect the interests of the farming community.