Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national spokesperson Raghav Chadha on Tuesday said that the false “propaganda” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Central government has been exposed after an advertisement on the recently passed farmer Bills in Parliament was published in leading newspapers in English to make farmers understand terms ‘Minimum Support Price’ (MSP), ‘Public Distribution System’ (PDS) and public procurement.
Terming it a mockery of the oppressed and distressed state of the farmers, Chadha said, "Today, the Modi-led Central government has set a new record of brightening their faces with the hard-earned money of the common taxpayers. They have further deepened the wounds of the deceived farmers by giving an advertisement in some of the leading newspapers of India and tried to explain the MSP and the MSP PDS system in the English language.”
“Which farmer in India would read this newspaper and ad with his morning cup of cappuccino, and understand the MSP? I want to question the Centre, out of 62 crore farmers and workers in the agricultural sector in India, who are the people who would read this ad in English and understand MSP, PDS, and public procurement,” he asked?
Chadha said that the 2015-2016 agricultural survey says that around 80 per cent of farmers in India have less than two acres of land. He said, "Those farmers cannot even carry their produce from their villages to other villages for selling. Will those farmers read and understand this ad with their morning cappuccinos? Is this not unwanted and unnecessary spending of the taxpayer's money? Is this not a way to make their own faces shine and mislead people through false propagandas,” he said.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP ND Gupta, who was also present in the press briefing said that the country and the Parliament is run on dictatorship and not on democracy, and said that the BJP government is now a government of ordinance.
Gupta said, "The PM and his cabinet have said this several times, that they will double the income of the farmers by 2022. They have also given a formula of doubling the income, which is Cost Price+50% of the CP. The bill that has been passed in the Rajya Sabha day before yesterday, says that the farmer can sell his/her produce anywhere without having any consideration and concern for Cost Price and MSP, and they are left to fend for themselves."
"This government is a government of ordinance. They bring in the ordinance before every bill despite there being many rules and procedures in the House and 24 committee ", he said.