PM doesn't have time to meet farmers: Chidambaram slams Modi government

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday attacked the government over the ongoing farmers' protest, saying the reward to the farm sector for growing at 3.9 per cent in a recession year is to treat the protesting farmers as if they are enemies of the state.

He asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi why did he not travel 20 km to talk to the protesting farmers sitting on Delhi's borders, even though he was travelling to Kerala and Assam.

"The reward to the farm sector for growing at 3.9% in a recession year is to treat the protesting farmers as if they were enemies of the state," the Congress leader said in a tweet in Hindi.

"The PM travels from Kerala to Assam but does not have the time or inclination to travel 20 kms to meet the farmers on the border of Delhi," he added.

The former finance minister, in another tweet, said the government will still claim that it has doubled the income of the farmers and all farmers get MSP when the truth is only "six per cent of farmers are able to sell food grains on minimum support price".

Farmers are sitting at Delhi's borders since November last year in protest against the three new farm laws and are demanding their repeal.

They have also held several rounds of talks with the government, which has proposed to put the three laws on hold for 1-1.5 years.