JOIN USAs the Centre and the governments in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are on a firefighting mode in the wake of the farmers’ unrest, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh was seen doing yoga in the company of yoga guru Ramdev.
As the bad optics for the government fuelled more rebuke from the Opposition, the BJP sought to defend itself, saying Singh’s visit was pre-planned and that he was monitoring the situation in Madhya Pradesh.
The yoga event was held in Singh’s hometown of Motihari, which was part of a three-day camp organised by Ramdev.
But, with the heat on, other ministers led by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the government was sensitive to the issue and was trying to address it seriously.
As the issue took a more serious political turn on Thursday, with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to visit Mandsaur, the focus was back on the BJP’s 2014 poll pledge to implement the recommendations of the M S Swaminathan Commission. Its most important recommendation was that there should be an improvement in the implementation of the Minimum Support Price (MSP), which should be should be at least 50% more than the weighted average cost of production.
As the central ministers maintained that several aspects of the panel’s recommendations had been factored into the government’s agriculture policy, the eminent agriculture scientist took to Twitter himself.
“Low productivity and market volatility addressed through loan waivers give short-term relief not long-term viability of agriculture,” Swaminathan said.