Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi addresses the media at Vijay Chowk. Excerpts of the interaction via INC India:

We had mentioned earlier that farm laws would have to be withdrawn.

We had said it because we understood that might of 3/4 large crony capitalists cannot stand against the might of the Indian farmers & labourers and that has come true.

What is unfortunate is how the farm laws have been repealed, without any discussion, without any conversation.

We wanted to have a conversation about the forces behind these farm laws because these laws do not just reflect the views of the Prime Minister. These laws reflect the powers behind the Prime Minister.

We wanted to discuss MSP, we wanted to discuss Lakhimpur Kheri, we wanted to discuss the 700 farmers who died in this agitation and unfortunately that discussion has not been allowed.

This is reflection of the fact that the government is terrified of having this discussion, the government wants to hide, the government does not have the guts to stand up for its actions and it is quite unfortunate.

This is not an isolated event. This is a thing to understand. Just now, a journalist was asking why parliament should exist, he does not even understand the question he is asking.

This entire institution is captured by the same forces that are pushing the farm bills, that carried out demonetisation, that put across GST, it is the same forces that didn’t give any money to the poor people during Covid

The question is not whether they are going to try to pass these farm laws again, the question is that the government is captured by a group, whose interest is against the poor people of this country.

They will do whatever can be done to damage the future of the poor people of the country.

The decision was taken by the govt because they could not face the power & the strength of Indian people represented in this case by the farmers & labourers, of course the idea that the UP elections are near must have played on their mind

If they were fully in support of the farmers, what were they doing for the last 1 year, why did it take 700 dead farmers for them to repeal these laws.

Why is the PM apologising and for what? If they have done nothing against the farmers why is he apologising and on whose behalf is he apologising.

The intention is bad and as I mentioned just now, the PM is an instrument of these forces, the PM is a tool of these forces.

These forces sit behind the PM, capture the media and pass laws like the farms laws. They are inimical to the future of our country.