Modi govt abandoning farmers: Rahul

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the Narendra Modi government of “abandoning” farmers at a time when the country is faced with an agrarian crisis, and backing “crony capitalists”.

Setting off on his day-long ‘padyatra’ through the affected villages of the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra, he told reporters,“The situation is very disturbing.There is a feeling of abandonment. The role of the government is to give a helping hand to the people when they suffer. But the governments in Maharashtra and at the Centre have let them down.

“The farmers have complained that they have been deprived of the bonus by the BJP government across the country. This government is for a few crony capitalists and has no interest in protecting the farmers, the poor man, and labourers,” Rahul said.

Targeting Prime Minister Modi, he said, “This is not a government that stands for farmers, workers and small businessman but this is a government for big business interests. The situation is not good for the farming community which I had realised after meeting the families of farmers who have committed suicide earlier in this cotton belt,” he said.

For the second consecutive day, Rahul drew on a controversial comment by Haryana Agriculture Minister O P Dhankar that farmers committing suicide were “cowards” and “criminals”, to target the NDA government.

Farmers were further “ridiculed” with remarks by the Union Agriculture Minister in Parliament that only three farmers have committed suicide, he said.

Rahul, who set out his ‘sanvad yatra’ early in the morning in Amaravati district, interacted with the farmers at the villages he travelled and many of them narrated their woes. Some of them told him that insurance companies were engaging in fraud and the requisite compensation was not paid to them for crop loss.