Hitting out at the BJP Government for its handling of the farmers protest in Madhya Pradesh, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday said there is anger among cultivators because the BJP retracted on its poll promise to implement the Swaminathan Commission report.
“When hard working farmers, who meet the food needs of this nation, ask for their due, they are fired at and five of them are killed, in police firing, in Mandsaur district of Madhya Pradesh,” he said while talking to reporters.
Hooda said the Mandsaur incident should not be seen in isolation as farmers of the country are up in arms against the BJP Government which has gone back on fulfilling its poll promise to implement Swaminathan Commission report.
“It is not the question of farmers of Madhya Pradesh alone. There is anger among farming community across the country,” Hooda, who was also the Chairman of Working Group on Agriculture Production during the previous Congress led UPA Government, said.
He called for urgent steps to fix the MSP (minimum support price) of crops in line with the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission. He also urged the Central Government to intervene immediately to resolve the “crisis” gripping the farming community across the country.
Hitting out at the BJP Government, he said, “they promised to double the farmers income by 2022, but they hesitate when it comes to implement the Commissions report”. He said, “The BJP is in the habit of creating illusion in peoples minds,” he added.
The National Commission on Farmers, headed by eminent agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan, in its final report had said that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) should be at least 50 per cent more than the weighted average cost of production.