Chandigarh: Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Thursday accused the BJP-led Centre of hatching a conspiracy to destroy Punjab’s farmers and selling India’s agriculture to the USA through the US-India trade deal.Cheema claimed that if cheap American milk powder, cheese, grains and other agricultural products begin entering India at low prices, it will directly crush Punjab’s farmers and farmers across the country. Raising a serious question, he said, “Where will Punjab’s farmers go? Where will the country’s farmers go?”
He added that Punjab contributed to India’s national food buffer through wheat and paddy for nearly 50 years.Referring to a social media post by the US agriculture secretary Brooke Rollins, Cheema said, “The US agriculture secretary publicly thanked President Trump and openly celebrated the deal, stating that it would export more American farm products into India’s massive market, lift American prices, pump cash into rural America and strengthen the US economy. This is clear evidence that the deal is not being done for Indian farmers, but for American farmers,” he asserted.
