PANAJI
The Congress hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its ill-treatment of the country's farmers during their recent agitation demanding legal guarantee of minimum support prices and accused the Centre of deceiving them with false promises.
Shailesh Agrawal, national coordinator of AICC's farmers unit, who addressed a press conference at the Congress headquarters in Panaji on Thursday said the Congress gauging the plight of the farmers community has offered five guarantees: an agricultural loan waiver scheme, legalizing guaranteed prices and excluding agriculture from GST.
Agarwal said, the BJP usurped power by falsely promising to double farmers' income.
"Farmers' insurance policies announced by the BJP only benefited the insurance companies and not the farmers," Agarwal said, adding that farmers are suffering due to inflation.
The other guarantees in the Congress manifesto for the farming community include establishment of Agriculture Loan Waiver Commission, restructuring of Fasal Insurance Scheme and amending the import-export policy, he said.
Agarwal said, BJP has failed as far as farmers of the country are concerned which is why they were forced to agitate in support of their demand for minimum support price for their crops.
"The BJP government tortured the farmers during the agitation. So far no other government has behaved in that fashion and it exposes their insensitivity towards the farmers," he added.
