AIKS slams US cotton import deal, seeks Goyal’s resignation
The All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has launched a scathing attack on Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, demanding his immediate resignation following his declarations regarding raw cotton imports from the United States. The farmers’ body termed the move a “naked betrayal” of domestic cultivators and a total capitulation to US trade interests. In a joint statement issued on Saturday, AIKS President Ashok Dhawale and General Secretary Vijoo Krishnan alleged that the Union Minister’s recent pronouncements have exposed the “falsehoods” that agriculture remained outside the ambit of the India-US trade deal. Goyal had reportedly stated that India could purchase raw cotton from the US to facilitate zero-percent reciprocal tariffs on finished textile exports.
“This declaration is anti-farmer and atrocious,” the statement read. It warned that importing raw cotton from the US would further depress domestic prices, pushing the already crisis-ridden and suicide-prone cotton belts of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, and Madhya Pradesh into deeper indebtedness.
The AIKS noted that the Government’s stance effectively encourages domestic industrialists to favour American imports over local produce. “The Minister is supporting highly mechanised, state-sponsored US farmers while our own peasantry is suffocating due to escalating production costs and the failure to secure even the limited MSP,” Krishnan said. The AIKS leadership rejected the Government’s argument that limited US exports would not harm domestic interests. They drew a parallel to the devastation of rubber farmers in Kerala following the ASEAN-India FTA.
