The BJP on Tuesday termed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s kisan yatra from Deoria in eastern Uttar Pradesh to Delhi as “ridiculous”, likening it to someone waking up from a long slumber.
Party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi attacked the Congress’ track record on agrarian distress and farmers issues.
“The Congress has reduced intercessions on behalf of agrarian societies from Vinoba Bhaveji’s Bhoodan movement to bhoohadap (encroaching on land). In every State that they have ruled, we have seen scams related to acquisition of land from the farmer,” he said.
Stuck with doles“The Congress party’s thinking on helping out farmers is reduced to doles and loan write-offs. The last one they did, in 2009, has been singled out by a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report as involving a misappropriation of funds to the tune of Rs 52,000 crore. The BJP, on the other hand, has tried to get as many farmers as possible within the net of institutional credit with a progressive decrease in the interest rate charged on agricultural loans,” he said.
He extolled the NDA government’s crop insurance scheme and other measures. “When the Congress was in power, they could not understand the pain of farmers for half a century. Now they have woken up to the plight of farmers when they are out of power,” he added.
He also accused the previous UPA of buckling to international pressure on World Trade Organisation’s prescriptions on food stocks.
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