Frustrated with the government’s response to the agrarian crisis, NDA partner and Swabhiman Paksha leader Raju Shetti has drawn up plans to launch a national campaign demanding farm loan waiver and increased minimum support price for farm produce.
Shetti, an MP from Maharashtra, has called a meeting of farmer leaders from across the country on Friday to finalise plans for a nationwide campaign demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi fulfil his electoral promise of fixing MSP at 1.5 times the cultivation cost of any crop.
Farmer leaders from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are expected to join Shetti. As a follow-up of his meeting with JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav on Wednesday, Shetti met Madhya Pradesh leader Sunilam, farmer leader from Rajasthan Rampal Jat, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav among others on Thursday.
Shetti had also visited Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, the epicentre of farmers’ agitation. He also played a key role in negotiating the farm loan waiver announced by the Maharashtra government earlier this month to end the farmers’ agitation in the state.
Protest in Rajasthan
Hundreds of farmers from the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, an organisation owing allegiance to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, launched an indefinite ‘mahapadav’ (sit-in) at seven divisions of Rajasthan on Thursday seeking loan waiver.
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