If elected, INDIA bloc will ensure legal guarantee for MSPs: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi promises legal guarantee of minimum support prices for farmers if INDIA bloc comes to power.

If the INDIA bloc comes to power, it will ensure that farmers get a legal guarantee that they will be paid minimum support prices (MSPs) for their crops, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi vowed on February 16. He added that farmers are currently “not getting the right price” for their produce.

Thousands of farmers are currently in a face-off with the Union government at the Punjab-Haryana border as they attempt to march to Delhi with a seven point agenda, including a long standing demand for a legally guaranteed MSPs. An umbrella farmers’ group, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, called for a nationwide strike on February 16 to press their demands.

Addressing the Kishan Nyay Mahapanchayat in Sasaram in Bihar’s Rohtas district as part of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Mr. Gandhi said that things would be different if the Opposition alliance, which includes the Congress, is voted into power in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

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“I can guarantee one thing, whenever farmers have asked anything from the Congress party — be it waiving off their loans, MSPs, or the Green Revolution — we have never backed out. We have always protected you and will keep protecting the farmers,” he said. “Farmers are not getting the right price for their yields like paddy, wheat, pulses and vegetables. I have taken a revolutionary decision to implement a legal MSP guarantee if the INDIA bloc comes to power. We will implement what the Swaminathan report says,” he added.

A report by a panel headed by the late M.S. Swaminathan, posthumously awarded a Bharat Ratna last week, had recommended a formula for MSPs which would result in higher rates being paid to farmers.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who was accompanying Mr. Gandhi, also slammed the Union government’s attitude toward farmers. “Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] has time to meet [actor] Priyanka Chopra, but he does not have time to meet our brother farmers. I don’t want to discuss the other issue he talks about, because Modi ji is a factory of lies but one thing is clear that RJD is standing with the demand of farmers on MSP,” Mr. Yadav said.