Kisan Nyay: Ahead of LS polls, Rahul Gandhi announces five guarantees for farmers

CHANDVAD (NASHIK),: Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi announced five guarantees under Kisan Nyay (justice for farmers).

These include legal status for the MSP and debt waiver, besides guaranteeing that the export-import policy will be implemented keeping farmers’ interest paramount.

Addressing a farmers’ meeting on the sixty-first day of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, here today in the presence of Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, Gandhi said if the Narendra Modi government can waive off Rs 16 lakh crores debt of just 20-25 billionaires, why can’t be the debt of farmers also waived off as they are protectors of the nation.

The former Congress president said that once his party forms the government at the Centre, the MSP will be given legal status. “A special law to this effect will be passed in Parliament and the MSP will be set by the Dr. MS Swaminathan Commission formula”, he announced amidst great cheer and applause from thousands of farmers who had gathered to listen to him.

To provide debt relief to farmers, Gandhi announced that a ‘Standing Farm Loan Waiver Commission’ would be set up to waive off loans of farmers and determine the amount of the loan waiver that is required. He pointed out that the Congress-led UPA government had waived off farmers’ loans worth Rs 70,000 crores, while the BJP government had not waived off even a single penny, while it waived off Rs 16 lakh crores of loan of just 20 billionaires.

To provide foolproof protection to farmers against unforeseen losses to their crops, Gandhi said, ‘PM Fasal Bima Yojana’ will be redesigned to guarantee payment to farmers, within 30 days of crop loss, directly into their bank accounts. He alleged that currently the scheme was aimed only to benefit the big insurance companies and not the farmers.

He alleged that the export-import policy was currently being regularly tweaked from time to time only to cause losses to the farmers. He pointed out, that it has been a common practice under the BJP government that whenever there is a chance for farmers to export their produce, the government bans exports leading to huge losses to them (the farmers). This, he guaranteed, will end once Congress forms the government. He announced that the Congress government will formulate and implement an import-export policy for agricultural commodities, which will give paramount importance to protecting the interests and concerns of farmers. “It will be stable and predictable and based on farmer interests”, he added.

The Congress leader also promised that the materials related to agriculture will be excluded from the GST. He pointed out, that it was for the first time that the agricultural and related equipment and materials were brought under the GST thanks to the BJP government. “Farmers will be ‘GST-mukt’ (free from GST)”, he remarked, while adding, that the GST regime will be amended to get rid of the taxation on agricultural materials.

Gandhi expressed special gratitude to NCP leader Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut for attending today’s farmers’ meeting.