The Congress on Wednesday slammed the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana for resorting to lathi charge against farmers who were protesting against their produce of sunflower seeds not being procured at minimum support price (MSP).
On Tuesday, protesting farmers blocked a highway at Haryana’s Kurukshetra for over six hours. The blockade also affected vehicular movement on the Delhi-Chandigarh and Delhi-Ludhiana-Amritsar routes and police used water cannons and resorted to lathi charge to disperse the agitators. The protesters claimed they were forced to sell their produce to private buyers at around ₹4,000 per quintal as against the MSP of ₹6,400 per quintal.
Attacking the BJP, the Opposition party said the ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’ slogan given by former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had now been transformed into ‘mare kisan, pite kisan, jai dhanwan’ (farmers die and are beaten up but the rich are hailed).
‘Black agricultural laws’
Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said the BJP’s “anti-farmer attitude” was coming to the fore again and again. Sometimes farmers were attacked by bringing Land Acquisition Ordinance and “black agricultural laws” and sometimes they were assaulted directly, as happened in Kurukshetra, he said on Twitter.
“We strongly condemn the lathi charge on the farmers who were protesting peacefully. The government should fulfil their demand for MSP and not try to brutally suppress their voice,” tweeted Mr. Ramesh.
‘Betrayal of farmers’
Addressing a press conference at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters, Rajya Sabha member Deepender Hooda said the Kurukshetra lathi charge was a “symbol of this government’s betrayal of farmers”.
“They were protesting democratically but ‘lath tantra’ was deployed which has shamed the nation,” he said, adding that the demand of the farmers should be accepted and those arrested during the protests must be given financial compensation.
Urging farmers to be patient, the Congress leader said when his party comes to power in 2024, it will implement legal guarantee for MSP.
“We want to warn government it will have to answer for every lathi it has rained on farmers. ‘Mare kisan, pite kisan jai dhanwan’ is the slogan of this government. This is an anti-farmer government and we will fight this from the streets to Parliament,” Mr. Hooda asserted.
