New Delhi: Hitting out at the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress general secretary and party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Saturday said that the hypocritical Modi government is oppressing the farmers for the last 7 years instead of just 7 months by violating their rights.
He also alleged that the Modi government has crossed all limits of barbarism in the last 7 months. While expressing the party's solidarity with protesting farmers since November 26, 2020, Surjewala said, "The kind of atrocities the Modi government is doing on farmers for the last seven months has never been seen by any government in power across the globe. Farmers are called as 'Annadata' in our country, but the Modi government is treating them like anti-nationals."
Meanwhile, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi also came out in support of farmers by saying that we are with the "farmers". In a tweet in Hindi, Rahul Gandhi said, "It's simple - We are with Satyagrahi Annadata (farmers)."
While listing seven proofs of conspiracy of the Modi government to defeat farmers, Surjewala said, "Soon after the government formation in 2014, the Modi government changed 'Fair Compensation Act 2013' to grab farmers' land. In 2015, it refused to give support price that was promised in the Supreme Court and gave a free hand to private companies to loot farmers in the name of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in 2016."
Kisan Samman Nidhi, which was launched in 2018, is another trick of the Modi government to befool farmers, he alleged.
"The government shut down PM Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) – an income protection scheme – in a planned manner as the scheme had an outlay of Rs 1,500 crore in the budget 2019-20, which reduced to only Rs 400 crore in 2020-21," Surjewala said, adding that all three anti-farm laws brought in for the benefit of the capitalists.