AICC spokesperson Brijesh Kalappa alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been conducting sessions with farmers in various parts of the country for namesake. In reality, he has no concern for farmers.
Addressing reporters on Wednesday, he said that the protests by farmers against the new farming laws have grown intense. More than 80,000 farmers are taking part in the protests held in Delhi.
But, instead of speaking to the protesting farmers, Prime Minister Modi is speaking to farmers in Kucch. He has not taken the effort to discuss the problems of real farmers who have been protesting from the past 26 days, he added.
Brijesh Kalappa further said, "If people do not register their protests against the injustice of the government today, they may have to regret tomorrow."
He recalled that during the Prime Ministerial tenure of Manmohan Singh, about 70,000 crores of loans availed by farmers were waived off.
Also, the Siddaramaiah led state government had waived the loans availed by farmers from cooperative banks. Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had also waived loans to the tune of Rs 25,000 crore, he added.
Pointing out that the market prices of coffee and pepper have drastically fallen, the AICC spokesperson said that the growers are in soup due to this.
Moreover, maintenance costs are increasing. During the UPA government regime at the Centre, the market rate of pepper was between Rs 800 and Rs 1,000 per bag. Today, the price has fallen to Rs 350. This is due to the adulteration of low-quality pepper from Vietnam with best quality pepper of India, he said.
He urged the Central government to stop importing Vietnamese pepper and demanded an inquiry into the same.
District Congress Committee president K K Manjunath, member Uday Kumar, leaders M A Usman, Fancy Parvathi and Nandakumar were present.