Farmers Movement Archive

BJP anti-farmer, Centre never got produce at MSP from Delhi farmers in 5 yrs: AAP

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Central government has not once purchased produce at the minimum support price (MSP) from farmers in Delhi in the past five years.In the truncated session, Parliament had approved three farm bills, leading to protests by farmer bodies and opposition parties. The primary points of contention are the absence of any mention of MSP (the government-decided floor) and the freedom given to private players and others to operate in areas beyond the physical boundaries of agricultural produce market committees (APMCs).Addressing a press conference, AAP leader and national spokesperson Raghav Chadha said because of the BJP government’s “stepmotherly” treatment towards Delhi farmers, they have been forced to sell their produce to private players at rates lower than the MSP.“The BJP at the Centre is against farmers. The BJP has used the slogan, ‘Jai Jawaan Jai Kisaan’, as a mere political tool to gain votes, and adopted the policy of ‘Mar Jawaan Mar Kisaan’ in reality. Over the past few weeks, farm bills are being discussed in the country. They were passed in Parliament secretly by keeping constitutional values at stake and were implemented across the nation. While the opposition says the BJP wants to abolish the MSP and mandis and harm the farmers, the Centre says it would not abolish mandis and MSP,” he said. Displaying documents, Chadha alleged that after 2015, the central government has not once purchased produce from Delhi farmers, let alone at the MSP rates. “The farmers of Delhi were left to be exploited by private players. The year 2015 was the last time that the Centre purchased wheat produce from Delhi farmers. It has been 5.5 years, and the Narendra Modi government has not purchased produce even worth a single rupee. The MSP of one quintal of wheat this year is ₹1,925. But because the central government is not purchasing wheat, Delhi farmers are forced to sell it at ₹1,700, which means that farmers are suffering a loss of ₹225 per quintal,” Chadha said. He further said over the past few years, Delhi government officials, mandi presidents, and ministers of the Delhi government have consistently written to the Centre, urging them to purchase produce from Delhi. “They have written that it is the responsibility of the government to purchase the crop produce at MSP from our farmers. But Centre has given no response. As many as 10 letters were written by the Delhi government to the Centre between March 2018 and May 2020 but to no avail,” Chadha said. Responding to AAP’s allegations, Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta said, “Kejriwal and his party have no moral right to make such baseless allegations about the Centre. The Kejriwal government has failed to give proper rights to the farmers. It is even misleading people by projecting that the liquid solution prepared by the Pusa Research Institute to turn stubble into manure is an achievement of the Delhi government. In reality, the institute is under the Centre and such activities should have begun in the month of August itself. So, the AAP should be the last party to talk of farmer welfare.”

Hindustan Times

09-10-2020

Delhi