Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed farmers at the Kisan Nyay Panchayat in Bihar on Friday, promising a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) of crops if the INDIA bloc secures victory in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
If the INDIA bloc comes to power after the general elections, we will give a legal guarantee to MSP. Whenever farmers have asked for something from the Congress, it has been given to them. Be it loan waiver or MSP, we have always protected the interests of cultivators and will do so in future, Gandhi said.
His statement coincides with the Bharat Bandh called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a farmers' body, urging the BJP-led central government to meet farmers' demands, including a legal guarantee for MSP. The protest intensified as farmers from Punjab initiated their 'Delhi Chalo' march on Tuesday, though they were halted by security forces at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Delhi and Haryana.
Meanwhile, Gandhi also criticized the BJP-led central government, accusing it of diverting a significant portion of funds from the defense budget to benefit industrialists. The Centre’s defence budget is not for the welfare of jawans and all defence contracts are going to a corporate group only, he alleged.