Congress accuses centre of disappointing farmers, reminds BJP of 'promises made by PM'

Congress on Wednesday continued to rally in support of the agitating farmers while accusing the Narendra Modi government of letting down farmers on a promise of legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for their products.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also rang up and expressed his support to a farmer who was injured in alleged tear-gassing at the Punjab-Haryana border on Tuesday. While Congress circles had on Tuesday night indicated that Gandhi, who cut short the Jharkhand leg of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and rushed to New Delhi, was to join the farmers agitation on Wednesday, it turned out later that the Congress leader was accompanying his mother Sonia Gandhi to Jaipur where she filed nominations for the Rajya Sabha polls.

Yet, the Congress circles remain abuzz with talks of Gandhi making a solidarity trip to visit the protesting farmers soon. At an AICC briefing today, party spokesperson Pawan Khera said that Narendra Modi, before he became the prime minister, had promised in his campaign rallies for the 2014 elections that the BJP will support the Swaminathan Commission proposals and the guaranteed MSP for their products.


"Be it BJP's manifesto of 2014 or the recommendation of CM (repeat CM) Modi's committee, the Modi government betrayed farmers on the guarantee of giving legal MSP," Khera alleged. "Prime Minister Modi should apologise to the country, for speaking a lie to farmers, for going back after filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court...," added Khera.

Responding to the BJP charge that previous Congress governments at the Centre had not implanted the Swaminathan panel proposals including on MPS, Khera said that the previous Congress regimes had implemented most of the panel proposals.