New Delhi: Ahead of the Union Budget 2018-19, the Yogendra Yadav-led Swaraj Abhiyan on Tuesday released a 31-page report titled ‘Kisan Green Paper 2018’. The subtitle of the report reads ‘4 years, 4 budgets: What has this Central Government delivered? The report slams the Narendra Modi government for letting down farmers in all its budgets.
“The present Central government, led by Mr Narendra Modi, assumed power on 26 May 2014. During the election campaign, the party and Mr Modi himself had made a number of promises to the farmers. The BJP’s election manifesto also contained some concrete promises about “Productive, Scientific and Rewarding” agriculture. It is well established that the farmers were among the key sections that swung towards the BJP in the 2014 elections and ensured the electoral success of BJP,” the opening lines of the report read.
The first part of the report calls out the Modi government for reneging on key promises made to farmers ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. “The government reneged on its core and solemn promise of revising MSP on the cost plus 50% formula, by solemnly affirming in the Supreme Court that this formula suggested by the National Farmers’ Commission and also promised by the BJP Election Manifesto, as unworkable; Far from enhancing the MSP to the level it had promised, this government actually brought down the routine annual increment in MSP to a level lower than the previous UPA regime which it rightly criticised for not addressing the farm crisis.”
The report also questions the Modi government’s aim of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022, adding that it would require an increase of 11% per annum in farmers’ incomes till that year. Instead, the report said that the story of Indian agriculture over the last four years has been one of “crisis and stagnation”.
“To double real incomes in 7 years, an annual increase of 11% in real incomes (adjusted for inflation) was required starting from 2015-16. However, three years after the promise, the government has not even adopted a roadmap for doubling farm incomes. The reality of the farm sector after 4 years of the NDA government is that of continued crisis and spate of farm suicides, distress and agitations around the country,” it reads.
The subtitle of the report reads ‘4 years, 4 budgets: What has this Central Government delivered? The report slams the Narendra Modi government for letting down farmers in all its budgets.
It goes on to say that farmers are also not getting fair price for their crops in the market. “The promise (of increase in MSP) has been blatantly broken in the past 4 years with MSPs being kept substantially low to an extent that in many cases, they deliver negative returns. In fact, in its first year of being in power, the central government even prohibited the state governments from declaring additional bonus in MSP for their own farmers... the net income of farmers has remained either critically low or negative.”
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