New Delhi: Former Supreme Court Judge Justice Markandey Katju has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking the government to issue an ordinance repealing the contentious farm laws.
"All human beings make mistakes. By doing this, far from losing face, you will be applauded. If you do it your popularity, far from going down, will soar," Justice Katju wrote in his letter.
Justice Katju suggested that as the farmers have refused to appear before the court-appointed committee, the government should appoint a High Powered Farmers' Commission with farm union members as representatives and agricultural experts. The commission shall hold meetings and discuss what they want, and with consensus, it should be enacted as a comprehensive law.
Apprehending violence if the agitation continues, Katju said till the laws are not repealed, the agitation will not stop.
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"The farmers in huge numbers are presently camped at the border of Delhi but are determined to enter Delhi on 26th January and join the Republic Day parade with their tractors. This will be obviously not be allowed by the Government, and consequently, violence in the form of police and paramilitary lathi charges and firing seems inevitable, and a Jalianwala Bagh type massacre (or like the massacre on Bloody Sunday in St Petersburg in Russia in January 1905, or as on Vendemiarie in Paris in October 1795) may ensue," read the letter.
The letter said that farmers constitute 60-65 per cent of the country's population and any law which affects such a large population shall be made "very carefully and after long deliberations" which in the present case did not happen and were passed "hurriedly".
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Adding on, he said that farmers also constitute a huge vote bank which was divided till now on the basis of caste and religion but is now united against the laws.
If any violence ensues then it is bound to affect even the police and the army as they too are mostly either farmers or sons of farmers and hence at heart, their sympathies would lie with them, he said.
"As it is often said, a soldier is a peasant in uniform. One shudders to think of the possible consequences which may follow if there is violence against the agitating farmers," read the letter.
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