Farmers' protests received booster dose from no less than VP: Cong

The Congress on Friday reiterated its support for farmers' demands and said their protests have received a "huge booster dose" from no less a person than Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar.

The opposition party's assertion came ahead of a scheduled march by a group of farmers to Delhi from their protest site at the Shambhu border on the Punjab and Haryana border.

Also, the remarks comes days after Dhankhar, speaking at a ceremony to mark the centenary of ICAR-CIRCOT in Mumbai, said, "Agriculture minister, I request you to please tell me, what was promised to the farmer? Why was the promise not fulfilled? What should we do to fulfil the promise? There was a movement last year, there is a movement this year, too." 

  Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh noted farmers are marching to Parliament Friday.

"Their protests received a huge booster dose from no less a person than the Vice President and Hon'ble Chairman of the Rajya Sabha himself," Ramesh said in his post on X.

"Farmers and their organisations have been agitating for the following demands - Legal guarantee for MSP, setting of MSP at 1.5 times the comprehensive cost of cultivation, as recommended by the MS Swaminathan Commission and one-time debt relief for farmers - just as banks have written off Rs 16 lakh crores of defaulting private companies," he said.

They are also demanding decisions on import and export of agricultural commodities be taken by an independent agency in which farmers are adequately represented, he said.

The farmers want the PM Fasal Bima Yojana - currently geared towards benefiting insurance companies - to be restructured to meet farmer interests and concerns, Ramesh said.

The Indian National Congress fully supports these and other demands put forth by the farmer organisations, he asserted.

Ramesh also shared the NYAY guarantees the Congress had promised in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls which included giving legal guarantee for MSP, fixing of MSP as per the Swaminathan Commission's formula and debt waiver.

The farmers are marching to force the Centre for a legal guarantee for minimum support price for crops.

A heavy deployment of security personnel has been made on the Haryana side of the border.

The Ambala district administration has already issued an order under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), restricting any unlawful assembly of five or more persons in the district.

The farmers are gathered under the banner of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces.

Besides MSP, the farmers are also demanding farm debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases (against farmers), and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

Reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of farmers who died during the previous agitation in 2020-21 are also part of their demands.