New Delhi, May 23 – On Thursday, the Congress party criticized the BJP for failing to fulfill promises made to farmers’ organizations, asserting that an INDIA bloc government would honor all its commitments to farmers, including the legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP).
Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh pointed out that elections have been held in 428 constituencies, with polling in 115 seats, including those in Punjab and Haryana, still pending.
In a video statement on X, Ramesh highlighted that the farmers’ movement has persisted in Haryana and Punjab for the past five years. Despite the government’s retraction of the “three black farm laws,” it has not met the promises made to farmers’ organizations.
“For the last five years, the Modi government has continuously ignored the farmers’ movement in Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh. Atrocities were committed against the farmers. Now they are discussing taking away the MSP from farmers in Punjab and Haryana for burning stubble,” Ramesh said. He emphasized that the Congress strongly opposes this policy.
“Farmer justice will be the top priority for the incoming INDIA Janbandhan government,” Ramesh stated in a post in Hindi, accompanying the video statement.
Ramesh outlined five concrete guarantees for farmers in the Congress’s Nyay Patra, including a legal guarantee of MSP based on the Swaminathan formula and the establishment of a permanent commission to effectively implement loan waiver plans.
Additionally, the party guarantees the direct transfer of insurance payments within 30 days of crop loss, the formulation of a proper import-export policy, and the removal of GST from all farming necessities, he added.
