Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the new farm laws would hurt not only the farmers and farm labourers but everybody else, too, because they would destroy the country’s food security.

“Koi nahin bachne wala (Nobody will be spared) —farmers, labourers, small shopkeepers, traders, youth, women,” Rahul told a farmers’ rally on the second day of his Kheti Bachao Yatra (Save the Farm March).

“The day the agriculture sector is taken over by these two — Adani and Ambani —the whole of India will be enslaved. It’s not a farmers’ issue, it’s about food security, it’s linked to the people’s freedom.”

Rahul warned: “Don’t trust me now, but remember what I’m saying. When your farms are snatched, when you are enslaved, recall what Rahul Gandhi said. It is my duty to tell you the truth. You too will have to face the truth after a few years. The prices of essential commodities will soar — what you buy for Rs 10 now will be available for Rs 50. You may not understand the conspiracy today but wait for a few years for the truth to manifest itself.”

The former Congress president argued that all the policies of the Narendra Modi government had been tailor-made to help a few corporate houses.

“There won’t be any choice for the people. Adani on one side; Ambani on the other. Only two. Small and medium businesses were destroyed by notebandi, the flawed GST and the lockdown. Now these farm laws,” he said.

“Why couldn’t Modi wait for a year; why did he bring these laws in now? Because he thought the farmers won’t be able to protest during the Covid-19 restrictions. Any political resistance won’t be possible under these circumstances. But he doesn’t know the strength of farmers. We will together show him what we can do.”

Rahul predicted that the job scene would worsen once the farm sector — which he described as India’s backbone — was broken.

He wondered how the people of Punjab and Haryana were silent in the face of such an assault on their freedom.

Invoking the message of Guru Nanak that nobody can escape from the truth, Rahul said: “Punjab gave food to the whole of India. And now Modi is trying to snatch the rights of Punjab farmers. How do you tolerate it? Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat… should rise united in protest. I will stand by you. I’m not scared of them.”

He linked the Chinese aggression on the borders to Modi’s policies that he said had weakened India.

“How dare China encroach on our land? They have captured 12km of India’s land. And Modi says nobody entered. Then how were our 20 soldiers killed? Where were they killed if nobody entered our territory?” he said.

“China was emboldened by a weak India, because our economy (that was) growing at 9 per cent has slumped to minus 24 per cent. Modi has destroyed this country in the process of helping his friends.”

Rahul’s march, which has attracted large crowds over the last two days, is to enter Haryana on Tuesday.

A confrontation had seemed probable when the Haryana home minister said Rahul would not be allowed to enter the state, but the threat has receded amid a signal that the Congress leader would be let in if he came without a cavalcade. The tractor rally from Punjab looks likely to terminate at the Haryana border, allowing Rahul to proceed without any conflict.