Centre shying from MSP promise: Harsimrat

Chandigarh: Taking on the Centre in the Lok Sabha, Shiromani Akali Dal MP and former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the government had not only shied of giving farmers a written assurance of minimum support price (MSP) for food grains but also planned to unbundle the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
In her speech on the President’s address in Parliament on Tuesday, Harsimrat Kaur said that in 2011, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had as chairman of the working committee of chief ministers recommended a statutory provision to bar farmer-trader transactions below the MSP. “This is what the farmers now demand. What has changed and why isn’t the government repealing the farm laws, withdrawing cases against the farmers, youth, and social activists, and ending their torture,” she said.
On the Republic Day violence, she said: “A lot was said about the insult to the national flag by a community that accounts for no less than 70% of the sacrifices during the freedom movement. But there was no talk of or probe into the intelligence failure. It is clear that the Centre had prior knowledge on January 25 that a group was ready to march to the Red Fort and yet did not close the route. The ‘kesari nishan’ was vilified, the same kesari nishan that the Prime Minister has sported on his head on many occasions.”
The Bathinda MP accused the central government of being arrogant to the farmers and branding them ‘bicholiya’, naxals, and Khalistanis. She said: “They were also accused of sitting on the Delhi borders with AK-47 assault rifles. Who ploughs the fields with AK-47s?” They are peaceful protesters sitting in this biting cold, and the government didn’t send a single minister to ask about their well-being.”