MNM founding general secretary joins BJP
Claims party’s opposition to Farm Laws forced his hand.
Makkal Needhi Maiam founding general secretary, A. Arunachalam joined the BJP on Friday morning in the presence of Union Minister Prakash Javadekar. He contended that the MNM leadership had not paid heed to his views that the three Farm Laws brought in by the Central government would be beneficial to farmers.
Mr. Arunachalam said he came from a family of farmers and still had links to farming and that the three Farm Laws against which farmers are protesting in Delhi, was brought in with a long-term vision by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
He said he had asked the MNM leadership to not join the cause of the opposition parties in Tamil Nadu against the Farm Laws as the opposition was only keen on knocking off the benefits of the laws from the hands of the farmers.
“I come from a farmers’ family. So I can say that farmers know what benefits these laws will give us. I took these up with Kamal Haasan and the MNM leadership. But they did not pay heed to my views,” he said after joining the BJP at the party headquarters in Chennai.
He added that he had asked the MNM leadership to not look at the laws as having brought in by the BJP but by the Central government to benefit the farmers in the long term, but to no avail, leaving him with no option but to quit the party.
