Bhopal: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the party’s manifesto includes the promise to provide Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers legally if it came to power, and accused the BJP-led
Bhopal: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the party’s manifesto includes the promise to provide Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers legally if it came to power, and accused the BJP-led Union government of ignoring farmers’ interests while working for big industrialists.
Speaking in Morena after his ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ entered Madhya Pradesh from Rajasthan, he also reiterated the demand for caste census and claimed that 73 per cent of the country’s population has no presence in most sectors of the economy as well as in the top levels of bureaucracy.
He later addressed a gathering in Gwalior where he said conducting a caste-based census will be the first task the INDIA bloc government will undertake after coming to power at the Centre.
He also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the caste issue.
Gandhi said his second yatra commenced from Manipur because “the BJP’s ideology has set that state on fire where people are killing each other whereas Congress is averse to hatred”.
The BJP government at the Centre has waived loans of Rs 16 lakh crore of ten to fifteen industrialists but it is denying (legally guaranteed) MSP to farmers, Gandhi alleged in Morena. Farmer organisations in Punjab and Haryana are currently agitating for legally guaranteed MSP for crops.
“We have written in the manifesto, as soon as a Congress government comes to power in Delhi, we will give legal MSP to the farmers of the country,” Gandhi said.
Farmers are only asking for MSP and the right price for their produce and hard work, but when crops get ready for harvest, the Union government changes its import-export policy to bring down the prices of agricultural commodities, he alleged.
“This change forces farmers to sell their produce at a lower price and then the government again increases rates (by changing the policy),” Gandhi said.
Gandhi said 22 rich people in the country own wealth equal to that owned by half the population, and five per cent of the rich population has 60 per cent of the money. The level of unemployment is at the highest level in 40 years, Gandhi claimed, adding that unemployment in the country is double that of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
He alleged the Modi government’s decision to implement Goods and Services Tax and demonetisation led to an increase in unemployment as these measures badly hit the economy, especially small and medium businesses which employ the youth.
Naming the Adani group, Gandhi alleged that in every sector, five to six big companies enjoy a monopoly.
(With PTI Inputs)
Source link
