BJP views on farmers, MSP lost in translation

Hoshiarpur, April 15

State BJP general secretary and former Jalandhar Mayor Rakesh Rathore addressed a press conference in Hoshiarpur today regarding his party’s election manifesto.

Referring to the guarantees given, he claimed that the country has made unparalleled development in the last 10 years. He mentioned the BJP’s guarantee to farmers regarding increase in MSP on crops. When the media queried him about the farmers’ struggle regarding the MSP and why was the government not giving legal guarantee on it, Rathore said that the increase in MSP was being guaranteed and the government had taken many steps for the welfare of farmers including crop insurance and Kisan Samman Nidhi.

Referring to the three agricultural laws which were withdrawn after a long farmers’ struggle, he said that the BJP also stood for the welfare of farmers but when the farmers struggled, the Prime Minister respectfully withdrew them saying that perhaps he couldn’t explain his good intentions behind those three laws to help the farmers. When asked whether he believed that the agricultural laws could not be properly explained to the farmers, he said that Prime Minister Modi himself had said this.

Rathore claimed that the country has witnessed unprecedented infrastructural development in the last 10 years. He mentioned the construction of 1.5 lakh km of national highway, increasing the number of airports from 75 to 150 and the Vande Bharat trains. When asked about the steep toll being imposed on newly constructed highways, he said that this was the case even in developed countries. When asked that in developed countries, there is a normal road along with the toll road so that those who cannot pay the toll can move on it, Rathore parried the query saying that in the coming few years, people will get to see that too. On increasing the toll, he said the company which builds the road, charges toll tax to recover its expenditure and there’s a settlement in this regard. When asked that the tax paid by the public should be used for the development of infrastructure and if the companies were investing their own money in building the roads, then what was the government doing with tax, Rathore said that mere roads do not constitute infrastructure, but construction of airports and railways is also included in this, and a lot of work has been done in that direction.

On being asked as to what he would say about leaders being inducted in the BJP on whom the party had in past levelling serious aellegations of corruption, he said, “This is not the point to be discussed at our level but by the senior leaders of the party at the Centre.”

He talked about the Bharatiya Janata Party’s guarantee of making India the third leading economy of the world in the next five years. Rathore did not give any direct answer when he was asked about the warning issued by the IMF about India’s debt-GDP ratio being 81 per cent and the allegations about India’s debt increasing three times in 10 years. He cited the investment made in the country through FDI in the last decade claiming it to be a record and said this was proof that the Indian economy was getting stronger.

During this, he was accompanied by state secretary Meenu Sethi, district BJP president Nipun Sharma, district general secretary Dr Bindusar Shukla, Jatinder Saini Jindu, former Mayor Shiv Sood and other leaders.