Urging Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi not to play politics over the misery of farmers in Punjab, the ruling SAD on Thursday asked him to introspect on his party’s failure to mitigate the sufferings of farmer Surjit Singh who had approached him for help before committing suicide.
“It is clear that Rahul Gandhi is playing to the gallery as far as the sensitive issue of farmer suicides is concerned,” said SAD general secretary Maheshinder Singh Grewal, adding, “The cavalier attitude of Congress leader can be seen from the fact that he stopped at Fatehgarh Sahib to visit the family of Surjit while on his way to Kasuali to celebrate his birthday tomorrow. It is quite apparent that the tragic demise of the farmer has not moved Rahul to cancel his birthday bash.” Condemning such tactics which would never solve farmers’ problems, Grewal said that before conducting such stage managed shows, Congress vice-president should tell the people why he did not address the issues brought to his notice by Surjit Singh during his last visit to the State.
Asking Rahul to desist from playing a fraud with farmers, he said suicides were not the creation of SAD-BJP Government but had stemmed from the anti-farmer policies of successive Congress Governments during the last 60 years. He said the Punjab Government was doing its best to address the issue. “Despite decades of discrimination by repeated Congress Governments, we have tried to soften their misery by ensuring free power for agricultural operations. We have also taken several measures including encouraging maize cultivation and horticulture besides dairy production…But lot still remains to be done to wipe out the anti-farmer policies of the UPA rule,” Grewal added.