Congress Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda on Monday termed the Centre’s agriculture-related ordinances as anti-farmer and said the BJP governments had been consistently taking decisions to harm the farming community.
“In the upcoming bypoll for the Baroda Assembly seat in Sonipat district, people will teach the party, which has shown disrespect to farmers, a lesson. The BJP leaders recently called the protesting farmers traitors. Nothing can be more unfortunate,” he said at a video press conference.
Mr. Hooda said, “The BJP has continued its tirade against farmers and the three ordinances introduced by the Central government during the pandemic is an indicative of this mindset. Such serious policy decisions have been taken without the consent of Parliament. The government wants to promote the capitalists by demolishing the government buying mechanism which had been set up to protect the interests of the farmers,” he said.
“While the government talks about doubling the farmers’ incomes, their record in increasing the minimum support price shows their intentions. During the Congress government, the paddy rate increased by 14%-15% every year but during the BJP government, this rate of increase has come down to 5%-6%, which is barely above the inflation figures.”
Increase in unemployment
Mr. Hooda said data from the Centre for Monitoring India Economy (CMIE) and other sources indicate that there has been an increase in unemployment in both the urban and rural areas as many employed persons have lost their jobs.
“Instead of giving jobs to the youth, the BJP-JJP government is snatching whatever employment that exists. The fact is that the BJP-JJP government does not stand anywhere when we compare it with the number of jobs created during our term. We gave more jobs in the Education department than what the present government has done in all departments in their six years,” he said.
