DW BUREAU / SANGRUR Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader and MLA from Sunam Aman Arora today said that the surprise raids being carried out by the Income Tax department on Artiyas and traders of the state and the notices being sent to the farmers under FCR were out of vengeance. He also slammed the Narendra Modi led government at the centre. Addressing the conference, Arora said that the Punjab Arhtiya Association was giving full support to the farmers' movement, but now the Income Tax department was conducting raids across Punjab to stifle the voice of businessmen. He said that the farmers' movement was no longer the agitation of Punjab alone, as farmers from all over the country and abroad were supporting the agitation. "By issuing notices under the FCR, the Modi government is now trying to suppress the help provided to farmers from abroad. It is an old way of the Modi government that if anyone disagrees with their decisions, they are first slandered, then twisted and intimidated," he added. Arora said that now the raids of the I-T department on the artiyas and traders were an attempt to intimidate all the other sections who were supporting the farmers so that they would withdraw from the ongoing agitation. He further said that although the Modi government was ignoring the importance of agriculture and farmers, the traders were well aware that the wheel of their economy was turning down with the farmers and laborers in regard with the black laws. He said the future of shopkeepers, artiyas, traders and transporters was also in jeopardy. Taking a dig at the Modi government, Arora said that if the centre government thinks that they would suppress the farmers' movement, then it was their false belief. Arora said that now the agitation was not only of the farmers but of all the people of the country, who were standing shoulder to shoulder with them. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should talk to the agitating farmers and immediately repeal the three agricultural ant-farmers laws and give legal guarantee on purchase of all the crops on MSP. He was accompanied by AAP leaders Narinder Kaur Bharaj, Neel Garg, Gurcharan Singh, Gurdev Singh Sangala, Sikandar Singh, Hardeep Singh Toor, Safi Mohammad, Kamal Singh, Gurpreet Raja, Jagtar Singh, Noni Singh, Karamjit Nagi, Hardeep Bharur, Mandeep Singh Lakhewal, Mani Sarao among others. (editor@dailyworld.in)