Firing of tear gas shells on farmers condemnable, govt should accept their demands: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday condemned the firing of tear gas shells on farmers to stop them from coming to Delhi and asked the government to immediately accept their demands, including a legal guarantee of MSP.

In a post in Hindi on X, Gandhi said farmers want to come to Delhi to put forward their demands before the government and express their pain.

"Firing tear gas shells on them and trying to stop them in various ways is condemnable. The government should listen to their demands and problems seriously," the former Congress chief said.

The suffering of the farmers can be gauged from the fact that today in the country, one farmer is forced to commit suicide every hour, he said.

"The country has not forgotten the martyrdom of more than 700 farmers in the first farmers' movement due to the extreme insensitivity of the Modi government. We understand the pain of the farmers and support their demands," he said.

Gandhi said the government should immediately implement all the demands, including a legal guarantee of MSP, fixing MSP at one-and-a-half times the comprehensive cost of cultivation as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission, loan waiver, etc.

The country will be prosperous only when the farmers are prosperous, he added.