NEW DELHI: Congress MP and spokesman Deepender Hooda on Wednesday condemned the lathi charge on the Haryana farmers in Shahbad. He said it showed the BJP’s anti-farmer face to protest against the sixth anniversary of the firing on the farmers at Mandsaur in Mdhya Pradesh.
He told a Press conference here that many farmers were wounded and 10 farmers hospitalised. Many farmers have been also arrested. He said the government has changed late Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s slogan of Jai Jwan into “Pite kisan, Jai Dhanwan.”
Hooda said the farmers were agitating for the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Sunflower crop. It is not maximum retail price but the minimum price that the farmer does not decide but it is the government that fixes it. He said the demand is raised off and on that the farmer should get the cost of cultivation.
He said the Centre had promised the MSP at the time of its withdrawal of three black farm laws after a year-long farmers’ protests on Delhi border in which 750 farmers died.He said it did not give the legal guarantee of the MSP. He said the committee set up 18 months ago has the members who have no knowledge. The committee has also not been formed so far, he said.
The Congress MP, son of former Haryana chief minister, said the BJP government in Haryana has always used force of the lathis whether it concerns thee farmers or the wrestlers or the Anganwadi workers.
