Sunday, 22 OCTOBER 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN

Reacting sharply to the statements made by the State BJP president Mahendra Bhatt about the farmers, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara has said that the BJP leaders have got frightened by the  growing faith of farmers in the Congress Party.

 He said that Bhatt has lost his mental balance due to which he is engaged in worthless verbosity.

He said that in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019 the BJP made false promises to the people and farmers and grabbed power. Mahara said that the anti-farmer face of the double engine government of BJP got exposed on the day when the Modi government brought three draconian farm bills to provide benefit to its capitalist friends. He said that the government was forced to withdraw these laws after a 13 month long protest of farmers.

Mahara said that the farmers are facing a double whammy of price rise, increase in cost of seed, fertiliser and diesel and imposing of GST on farm equipment. He said that the Modi government has always ignored the demand of the farmers for the minimum support price of their produce.

The PCC president said that the farmers of the State suffering from natural disaster and excessive rains are not getting proper price of their produce. He said that Bhatt should know that a world class university like Pantnagar agriculture university was established during the regime of Congress party. It was during the Congress party’s rule that the green and milk revolutions occurred in India and due to whom the farmers were referred to as Anndata. Mahara said that during the Manmohan Singh government the loans worth Rs 72,000 crore of farmers were waived off. He claimed that the farmers are happy and prosperous in the State ruled by the Congress party. Apart from waiving off the loans of farmers, the Congress party governments are providing fertilisers and seeds at subsidised rates.

Mahara said that the Congress party has always stood with the farmers while the BJP government has engaged in only rhetoric on the issues of farmers.