Those spreading confusion on MSP are insulting Dr Swaminathan: Rahul Gandhi jabs BJP
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday attacked the BJP-led Centre over the farmers’ protest and said.
Those who were “spreading confusion” on minimum support price (MSP) for crops were insulting Bharat Ratna Dr MS Swaminathan, the father of the Green Revolution.
Rahul Gandhi’s statement came after the farmers rejected the Centre’s proposal to procure pulses, maize and cotton at MSP through government agencies for five years, saying it was not in the “farmers’ interest”.
The farmers, who began their protest on February 13, said they would resume their march to Delhi on Wednesday. The march was halted on Monday after the farmers and Centre held a fresh round of talks in Chandigarh.
In a tweet, the Congress leader said the MSP guarantee will increase investment in agriculture, increase demand in rural India and farmers will also get confidence in growing different types of crops.
“In a country where bank loans worth Rs 14 lakh crore have been waived off, Rs 1.8 lakh crore corporate tax exemption has been given, why is even a little expenditure on farmers an eyesore?” he wrote on X.
“Those who are spreading confusion on MSP are insulting Dr Swaminathan and his dreams. With the guarantee of MSP, Indian farmers will not be a burden on the budget but will become the drivers of GDP growth,” he said.
Gandhi further said, “The guarantee of MSP will increase investment in agriculture, increase demand in rural India and farmers will also get confidence in growing different types of crops, which is a guarantee of the country’s prosperity.”
Last week, Rahul Gandhi announced that if the Congress forms the government at the Centre, it would provide farmers with a legal guarantee of MSP for crops. However, in 2010, the Congress-led UPA rejected the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations.
KV Thomas, the Minister of State for Agriculture in 2010, informed the Rajya Sabha that the recommendation was not accepted by the government because “MSP is recommended by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) based on objective criteria and considering a variety of relevant factors. Hence, prescribing an increase of at least 50 per cent on cost may distort the market. A mechanical linkage between MSP and the cost of production may be counter-productive in some cases.”
The question on the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendation was then asked by BJP’s Prakash Javadekar.
Responding to the rejection of Swaminathan Commission recommendations in 2010, Congress leader Pawan Khera said there were 201 recommendations, out of which 175 were accepted during the UPA government.