PM reaches out to striking farmers with 'folded hands and all humility'

Reaching out to striking farmers once again, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that with ‘’bowed head, folded hands and all humility' he was ready to talk to them on every issue to allay all their fears and concerns.

"Even after government’s efforts, if anybody has any fears, then with bowed head, folded hands and all modesty we are willing to allay their concerns,’’ the Prime Minister said while addressing farmers at a ‘Kisan Kalyan event’ at Raisen in Madhya Pradesh via video conferencing.

He also rubbished the charge about the government ending the Minimum Support Price (MSP) through the new laws and said this was ‘’the biggest lie ever". ‘’I say with all confidence that the agriculture reforms we have brought in recently, there is no reason for mistrust and no scope for lies.’’

Seeking to allay any fears about removing MSP the Prime Minister said if the government wanted to remove it, why would it have implemented the Swaminathan Committee report.

He said his government was so serious about the Swaminathan Committee report that MSP was announced before sowing every time. This facilitated a farmer and he knew in advance how much MSP would he be getting.

‘’I assure the farmers that MSP will be given as it was being given earlier. It will neither be stopped nor ended,’’ he added.

The Prime Minister said that another lie was being spread about APMC, mandis. In the new laws the government has given farmers the option to sell their produce anywhere they get more profit, whether in mandis or outside.

‘’After the new laws not a single mandi has been closed. Then why are these lies being spread,’’ he asked.

A third lie was being spread about farming agreement, he said and added that farming agreement was nothing new in this country and has been going on for years. In the farming agreement, there is only agreement on crops and farm produce. The land remains with the farmer and there is no connection between land and agreement, he added.

Lashing out at political parties he said they should stop misguiding farmers. It has been 6-7 months since the farm laws were implemented. But now suddenly games were being played by spreading a web of lies.

He said If old election manifestos of all political parties were seen now or their old statements heard, the agriculture reforms done now, were no different than what they had said in their manifestos. The farmers should seek explanation from them because they only kept writing about these reforms in their manifestos but did nothing. They only grabbed votes of farmers and avoided these reforms while farmers kept on waiting.

Talking about the opposition, he said those who were talking about farmers, are so ‘’heartless’ and one proof of that is the Swaminathan Committee report. The report was submitted but these people sat on the Committee recommendations for eight years.