New Delhi: Union minister for agriculture Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday (August 5) dared the Congress in the Rajya Sabha not to “provoke” him and said that if they did he would not “spare them” amid an uproar from the opposition benches about the centre’s commitment to farmers as they accused the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government of being “anti-farmer”.
The House erupted in protests from opposition benches, as soon as Chouhan, who was continuing his reply on the discussion on the working of the ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare, rose to speak.
“The Congress has, of course, always talked about helping farmers directly. But it has never done that. It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who launched the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme,” said Chouhan.
Opposition benches could be heard protesting, raising the firing on farmers.
“Mujhe cchero mat, agar ccheroge toh chorunga nahi (Don’t provoke me, if you provoke me I will not spare you),” said Chouhan. “They are talking about firing on farmers? Congress governments fired on farmers in different states. Digvijaya Singh is sitting here. His hands were stained with the blood of 24 farmers,” he said.
As both the opposition and treasury benches broke in an uproar, Chouhan listed firing incidents of farmers under the Congress’ rule.
“In 1986 when the Congress was in power in Bihar, 23 farmers were killed in firing. In 1988, on the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi in Delhi, two farmers were killed after they were fired upon. In 1988, they fired on farmers in Meerut and five farmers were killed. On August 23, 1995, six farmers were killed in Haryana. In 1998 24 farmers were killed,” he said.
Dhankhar then interjected but Chouhan reiterated that “mujhe chedenge toh main chorunga nahi” (they provoke me I will not spare them).
As Dhankhar said that he condemns the interruptions during the minister’s speech and every member should participate seriously in a discussion on farmers, opposition members staged a walkout.
Chouhan lists mentions of farmers by previous PMs
With the opposition absent, Chouhan then went on to list the number of times previous Congress prime ministers had mentioned farmers in their Independence Day speeches.
“When I became the agriculture minister I felt that I should read the speeches of all prime ministers. The most important speech is the Independence Day speech. I wanted to see what previous prime ministers have said. When I read those speeches I was shocked. I said the other day that the Congress does not consider farmers to be important. I respect Jawaharlal Nehru but I read all his speeches. He did not mention farmers even once. Not once. I am saying this after reading. This is their importance? I also respect Indira Gandhi. I don’t want to disrespect anyone,” he said.
He then said that she had mentioned farmers in her speeches a couple of times, but it was only “casually”. “She did not talk about any policy decisions,” he said.
He also referred to Rajiv Gandhi and said that for him as well the farmers were not important.
“But when I read Narendra Modi’s speeches, I found him mentioning farmers six times in 2014, 23 times in 2015, 31 times in 2016, 30 times in 2017, 17 times in 2018, 2019, 2020, 15 times in 2021..you pick up the speeches and see. What is in your heart, comes out of your mouth. They never had farmers in their hearts, but Narendra Modi had farmers in his heart and so he spoke of them,” he said.
‘Misleading House’
Later outside parliament, Congress MPs Randeep Singh Surjewala, Digvijaya Singh and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh held a press conference and accused Chouhan of misleading the House, promising to bring a breach of privilege notice motion against him.
“They have tried to mislead the country and the farmers. The biggest betrayal is to the country’s farmers so we will bring a breach of privilege motion against him,” said Surjewala.
Surjewala said that Chouhan had misled the House by giving statements contrary to those made in an affidavit to the Supreme Court in February 2015.
In his speech on Friday, Chouhan had said on questions of a legal guarantee for MSP that farmers only sold crops at MSP when the market price was lower.
“If farmers are getting the right price, they will not sell at MSP. The market price of many crops, including basmati rice, is much higher than the MSP,” he said.
He also said that the Modi government is committed to providing MSP to farmers.
However, the opposition said at the press conference on Monday that Chouhan had misled the House.
“On one hand, the Modi government said in the House that it will give 50% profit on cost and they have never shied away from it. Today we tried to show this affidavit filed by the Modi government in the Supreme Court on 6 February 2015 saying that the farmer can never be given 50% profit on cost. What is the truth? It has been alleged that Congress had thrown the Swaminathan Commission report into the dustbin. But in this same affidavit, the Modi government said Congress had implemented 175 recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission.
“In such a situation, what is the truth and what is the lie? The way we had to walkout shows that they are working as khalnayak,” he said.
