Opposing the Centre’s proposal to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said the Congress would launch an agitation against the Centre if India signed the agreement on November 4. This is expected to impact dairy farmers by allowing import of dairy products.
Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Siddaramaiah said, “My demand is that the government of India should place before the people what is going on in the free trade agreement and the RCEP. The pros and cons should be debated publicly. Our country’s economy should not be destroyed by doing it clandestinely.”
“If the government signs the deal without discussion, it is nothing but betraying the people. Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa should lead an all-party delegation to the Centre in this regard to make the government understand the impact of the decision. This will also affect Gujarat, the home State of Prime Minister, which is number one in diary production,” he said.
Unemployment problem
Noting that the country was already facing unemployment problem because of demonetisation, GST, and “bad economic policies” after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, the Congress Legislature Party leader said, “When the economy is in doldrums, with a decline in GDP, if the dairy industry is hit with this agreement, it will further get destabilised.”
“If the agreement is signed on November 4 without discussing and keeping it secret, our party will oppose and protest against it on the streets,” he asserted.
“Import of cheap products will hurt dairy farmers and in turn will cause rural distress. Karnataka alone produces more than 86 lakh litres of milk and other dairy products.”
He said, “Under Ksheera Dhare, we had increased the subsidy to producers to ₹5 a litre. We also launched Ksheera Bhagya to ensure full utilisation of excess milk and address malnourishment issues in children. The FTA will only nullify all these,” he said.
Letter to Modi
At another press conference, the former Union Minister M. Veerappa Moily urged Mr. Modi not to permit the import of dairy products, arecanut and pepper under the RCEP.
In his letter to Mr. Modi, the veteran Congress leader said, “I very strongly recommend not permitting the import of dairy products, arecanut and pepper under any free trade agreement, in the best interest of the farming community of the country who are already in severe distress owing to unseasonal rain and floods”.
He said India was a more labour-oriented country and many landless agricultural labourers were mainly dependent on dairy farming unlike New Zealand or Australia, or any European model of dairy farming.
He underlined that milk was the highest value crop giving 27% of agricultural income to farmers which cannot be ignored to realise the objective of “doubling the Indian farmers income by 2022”.
