Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday alleged that farmers were being forced to celebrate a “black Diwali” as the minimum support price (MSP) for kharif crops had been much lower than promised and the monetary loss could be as high as ₹50,000 crore.
“Across various mandis, kharif crops are being sold between 8% to 37% lower than the MSP. Farmers who grow tur, moong dal, sunflower and soyabean are not able to recover their cost. What’s their fault?” asked Ms. Gandhi in a statement.
On an average, she claimed, the price of the kharip crops is 22% lower than the MSP.
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If one calculates the deficit between the MSP and the actual selling price over the kharif production of 140.57 million tonnes of foodgrains, then the monetary loss is close to ₹50,000 crore.
“Who’s going to compensate for this?” Ms. Gandhi asked.
The Congress chief’s aggressive stance on the crops comes a day after the party’s policy group that includes former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had discussed threadbare the economic and political situation.
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Against the backdrop of all exit polls predicting dismal performance, the party expected satisfaction over it’s show in Haryana and Maharashtra.
Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who met the Congress chief, said, “She said it was a good performance, she is happy”.