Farmers pleading for justice because Modi govt 'betrayed' them again and again: Kharge

Slamming the Centre, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday said farmers are pleading for justice because the Modi government "betrayed them again and again", and asserted that the tillers' right to raise their voice should not be taken away from them. Kharge asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi as to why farmers have to come to Delhi's doorstep again and again for justice.

"Today, when you will be on a tour to Haryana and Rajasthan, I hope that you will definitely try to understand the struggle of the farmer who provides food to the nation. Farmers are pleading for justice because your government has betrayed them again and again," Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X.

"The betrayal of not doubling farmers' income by 2022, the betrayal of not implementing Input Cost + 50% MSP as per the Swaminathan report, and the betrayal of forming a committee to give legal status to MSP but not acting on it," he said, slamming the Modi government.


Kharge claimed that there was neither adequate procurement nor was it being done at a fair price.

"On top of that, farmers are troubled by the acute shortage of DAP and fertilizers!" he said.

"You laid a net of barbed wire on the path of the farmers, again turned the Delhi border into a cantonment, tried to stop their peaceful march with tear gas. Before this, you fired rubber bullets at them and showered lathis on them," he said.

"Not only this, in Parliament, you (PM Modi) yourself made derogatory remarks on farmers calling them 'andolanjeevi' and 'parjeevi' and did not even consider it appropriate to observe two minutes of silence in memory of 750 martyred farmers," Kharge alleged.

"In this situation, no matter how many lies you and your Agriculture Minister tell, the farmers who provide food have understood that you are their staunch opponent. Don't take away the farmers' right to raise their voice, Don't do injustice to them!" he said.

Agitating farmers suspended their foot march to Delhi on Sunday after some of them sustained injuries in teargas shelling by Haryana security personnel who thwarted yet another attempt by the protesters to cross the Punjab-Haryana border.

Farmer leaders said they would decide the next course of action on Monday.

After a group of 101 farmers resumed the foot march on Sunday afternoon, they were halted by a multilayered barricade set up by Haryana security personnel who surprised the protesters by offering them tea and biscuits and showering them with flower petals.

But the protesters claimed it was all a "drama" as the police soon lobbed teargas shells and used water jets to disperse them when they insisted on crossing the Shambhu border.