Govt invites protesting farmers for talks, our doors open: Piyush Goyal

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, July 30

Closely after a group of farmers met Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi seeking his support for pressing ahead with their demand on statutory MSP, the government on Tuesday again made an offer of talks to the protestors.

“Doors of the government are always openfor farmers. Wewelcome farmers for discussions and our doors are always open and I hope they will accept our call,” senior minister Piyush Goyal who led the group of interlocutors of the government at the time of farmers’ agitation.

Goyal, however, termed the protesting segment of farmers at the Haryana and Punjab border “small” and said a vast mass of Indian farmers, nearly 14 crore, are with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“This — the protesting segment on Shambhu border is a very small section of farmers. There are crores 12 to 14 cr across India who support Modi government else we could never have come back for a third term with such a massive outpouring of support. TheBJP is the single largest party in India and the only one with presence across north, south, east, west and the northeast,” said Goyal responding to a Tribune query on farmers’ agitation and whether a solution to the long festering problem was possible.

Goyal accused Gandhi of speaking lies in Lok Sabha on Monday about the farmer issue and asked why the Congress led UPA never implemented the MS Swaminathan formula of cost plus 50 % to farmers.

“The Swaminathan report came in Congress time but they slept on it. It was the BJP government that gave farmers MSP of cost plus 50 per cent and is now procuring food grains on a record scale,” said Goyal.

He also cited a 2004 speech of P Chidambaram, finance minister under UPA, to say: “Then FM’s speech never mentioned MSP. In fact Chidambaram saidIndia must become a single market for agriculture produce. He said the existing system of market committee has outlived its utility.

He also backed a model law on direct marketing and contract farming urging all states to enact it,” said Goyal.

He attacked Gandhi for “makingirresponsible statements, peddling childish and fake narratives with a broken track record of UPA time governance which had brought India to its knees with global agencies downgrading us. PMModi has ensured strong macro economic fundamentals and now rating agencies are talking about upgrading India. India a shining oasis in world economy, the fastest growing large economy in the world poised to be the third largest soon,” the minister said.

Goyal also cited Chidambaram’s interim budget speech of 2014, his last, where the then FM had said: “I urge all parties to take a pledge that we will not, we will never do anything to weaken the foundations of the Indian economy.”

What is Congress-led INDIA bloc doing today, asked Goyal, asking Gandhi to introspect rather than “tell lies in his urge to attack high constitutional functionaries.”