Punjab: Farm organizations give list of promises made by the Center and the Prime Minister

Punjab: Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) today sent a letter to Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, mentioning the promises made by the Government of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to farmers on various issues, including granting of MSP as per recommendations of Swaminathan Commission report, which are yet to be fulfilled. SKM (non-political) Convenor Jagjit Singh Dallewal, whose indefinite fast entered its 10th day today at Khanauri border morcha, urged farmers to maintain peace at any cost. He said the government now has no other way but to use heavy police force to remove them and others from the Khanauri site to defeat the morcha. Dallewal said a few days ago, Dhankhar had asked Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Chouhan “whether any promise was made to the farmers, and why it was not fulfilled”.

He said the minister has not yet made any statement in this regard. The farmer leader said that in the letter to the Vice President, he has mentioned that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the CM of Gujarat and chairman of the Consumer Affairs Committee of the Center, he had submitted a report to the then PM Dr. Manmohan Singh, which recommended that farmers should not be given the price of crops at a price lower than MSP. Dallewal said that during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Modi had promised the farmers that if his government is formed at the Center, the cabinet will decide in its first meeting that the farmers will be given the price of crops as per the Swaminathan report. On the other hand, the Central Government submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court in 2015, stating that the farmers cannot be given the price of crops as per the Swaminathan Commission report at any cost.

He said that in the last week of March 2018, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had given in writing to the farmers that the government will give the price of crops to the farmers as per the recommendations of the Commission’s report within three months. He said that the promise has not been fulfilled yet. At the time of concluding the farmers’ protest in 2021, the Centre had made certain promises to the protesting farmers, including compensation to the Lakhimpur Kheri violence victims, withdrawal of cases filed against farmers during their protest, no FIRs against farmers for burning paddy stubble, and not introducing the Electricity Bill in Parliament. Dallewal said none of these promises were honoured. He said the formation of a committee to give legal guarantee on MSP was another commitment made by the Centre to farmers in 2021. He said the farmers have been betrayed on this issue. He hoped that the Vice President would take some steps in this direction.