J P Nadda targets Congress on farm laws

Official sources circulated old speeches of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi

BJP President J P Nadda has alleged that the Congress is "confusing farmers and depriving them of their rights" in the backdrop of the farmers' agitation against the contentious farm laws.

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Tweeting an undated video of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Thursday, he said, "Sonia Gandhi used to advocate the middleman-free market for farmers and now opposes it. This is the proof of the Congress's opportunistic thinking, little information and repeated talk."

In the video, Sonia Gandhi can be heard saying that farmers can get the right price only when they can sell their produce directly to urban centres without middlemen.

Official sources also circulated old speeches of former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi in which both are heard advocating foreign direct investment (FDI) in the farm sector, saying it will not only fetch better prices for farmers but will also save produces from damage.

Congress leaders earlier staged a sit-in protest outside the party headquarters in the capital after they were prevented from marching towards Rashtrapati Bhawan. The leaders including Priyanka Gandhi were detained by the police for violating prohibitory orders.

The BJP on its part challenged Rahul Gandhi for an open debate on what the Congress did for farmers' welfare when in power and what the Modi government has done for them, as it rejected his allegations against the Centre as "baseless and illogical".

(With PTI inputs)