The National Conference of State Agriculture and Horticulture Ministers was held this year on 14 July 2022 in Bengaluru. The conference was inaugurated by Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in presence of Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Health and Family Welfare, and Chief Minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Bommai. In this conference, the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab raised the demand to resume trade with Pakistan which was suspended by Pakistan in response to the Modi government’s historic decision of abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019. This demand was raised by Punjab Minister for Agriculture and Farmers and AAP leader Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal during the conference.
Notably, the minutes of this conference were circulated to all the Agriculture Production Commissioners (APCs), principal secretaries, and the directors of agriculture of all the states.
The records of the discussions reveal that, among other things, Dhaliwal demanded the resumption of bilateral trade with Pakistan. He requested that trade with Pakistan be reopened, according to the records. It is important to note that no other state raised this demand.
According to the records, the Punjab government’s demand for the reopening of trade with Pakistan was included in the list of “action points emerging from the discussion with the state governments” prepared following the conference. This list of “action points” has also been released, as have the conference minutes. Dhaliwal’s other requests, such as providing agricultural input support in border areas that are nearly 14,000 acres, allocating Rs 1,000 crore for cold storage for vegetables, financial assistance to stop stubble burning, farm loan waivers, funds for agriculture university and financial assistance to boost groundwater levels, have also been incorporated into the action points.
BJP has slammed the Aam Aadmi Party as the ‘Pak Parast Party’ over the AAP-led Punjab government’s demand to reopen trade ties with Pakistan.
Shehzad Poonawalla, the national spokesperson of the BJP, took to Twitter and said, “Punjab’s AAP govt sought resumption of trade ties with Pakistan-demand was raised by Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal- AAP minister. AAP’s Pakistan Parasti parallels Congress Pak prem! Much like Congress AAP had questioned surgical strike, demanded Balakot proof, blamed Pulwama on India.”
“On one hand Kejriwal claims he is a kattar desh bhakt but in reality, he is a votebank bhakt. From abusing Hindus to Pakistan parasti AAP is mirroring Congress. AAP is now PPP – Pak Parast Party,” Ponawalla wrote in another tweet.
Notably, Pakistan had unilaterally suspended trade with India in August 2019 to protest the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August 2019. Then Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi had opined that there could be no normalization of ties until New Delhi reverses its decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. However, compelled by the circumstances, Pakistan later allowed limited trade with India.
Previously, India had withdrawn the status of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) to Pakistan on February 15, 2019, following the cowardly terrorist attack in Pulwama in which 40 security personnel were martyred. Interestingly, India accorded MFN status to Pakistan in 1996, while Pakistan failed to implement its November 2, 2011 decision to accord the same status to India.
After the withdrawal of MFN from Pakistan, the basic customs duty on all goods exported from Pakistan to India was also increased to 200% on February 16, 2019.