Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday (August 2) lashed out at the Congress over the issues of farmers and said that the grand old party has “anti-farmer” DNA, adding that it never prioritised the farm sector throughout its rule after Independence. His remarks came during a discussion on the working of his ministry in the Upper House, where he underlined the work done by the Narendra Modi government in the last 10 years while also affirming the Centre’s commitment to providing remunerative prices of crops to farmers as well as urea and DAP fertilisers at a highly subsidised rates.
Shivraj takes on Congress in Rajya Sabha
The Minister listed out the government's six priorities for the growth of the agriculture sector, which include increasing farm production, reducing input cost for farming, providing remunerative prices to farmers, adequate relief to farmers in case of natural calamities, diversification and value addition in agriculture, and promoting natural farming.
Chouhan, also a former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, assured the Opposition that the Centre was open to taking into consideration the concrete suggestions and would also try to implement the workable ones for farmers’ welfare.
In his one-hour-long speech, which will also continue on Monday, Chouhan slammed the Opposition for the accusation that the Modi government was working against the interest of the farmers and also rejected the charges of reduction in allocation of funds to the agriculture sector in the Union Budget 2024-25.
He also dismissed the allegation that the government was not buying enough quantity of foodgrains from farmers at the minimum support price (MSP).
What did Shivraj say?
"Congress ke DNA mein hi kisan-virodh hai. Aaj se nahi, prarambh se hi Congress ki prathmiktayein galat rahi hai (Congress DNA is anti-farmer. Not from today, but since the beginning, it has misplaced priorities)," he said.
The minister also said the agriculture sector was ignored and priorities were misplaced during the Congress rule. People had to eat bad wheat imported from America during the tenure of first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, he added.
During the rule of late prime minister Indira Gandhi, he said, the government used to forcibly collect levies from farmers.
Late PM Rajiv Gandhi did talk about agriculture price policy but did not take any concrete steps to improve farmers' income, Chouhan said, adding that the late PV Narasimha Rao government did not de-license the industries related to the farm sector.
The minister pointed out that the UPA rule during the 2004-2014 period was full of scams.
"The priorities of Congress were wrong. Under the leadership of Modi ji, the priorities were changed," Chouhan said and asserted that the BJP-led NDA government is working with a road map for growth of the farm sector.
On the opposition charge of reduction in the Budget allocations, Chouhan said the Budget outlay for the agriculture department alone is Rs 1,32,470 crore for 2024-25 against Rs 27,663 crore in 2013-14. The numbers are much higher if taken into account the Budget for allied ministries and fertilisers subsidy, he added.
(With PTI inputs)
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