Farmers’ Delhi march: Bhupinder Hooda says Govt should hold talks immediately and accept their demands

The Congress leader added, “Earlier, a committee was constituted. No report of the committee has come so far. Farmers are demanding that legal guarantee on MSP should be given, which is not being accepted. For instance, in Haryana, the government says they are giving MSP on 24 crops. The fact is that none of the 24 crops are grown in Haryana. I had even asked them to at least name those 24 crops. The MSP is not given even for paddy. Until there is a legal guarantee for MSP, farmers will not get the adequate MSP.”

Extending support to the farmers, Hooda said, “In democracy, everybody has a right to say his thing. The government should find a solution by way of dialogue. If anybody violates law, legal action should be taken. But, if they (farmers) are not violating any law and order and holding a peaceful march, there should be no objection to that. The responsibility of giving a legal guarantee for MSP is of the Union government. I had been asking the chief minister Nayab Singh Saini to at least name 24 crops on which the Government has announced MSP. The Government had been claiming that there was no shortage of DAP fertiliser. I asked why farmers were then queuing up. It is the negligence of the Government. Time holds a lot of significance. Now, the demand for urea is rising and now there will be a shortage of urea.”

Explaining his and the Congress’s stand on the issue, Hooda said, “We have always been saying that we are with the farmers. We even promised that if the Congress comes to power, we will give them (farmers) a legal guarantee for the MSP. We even included it in our poll manifesto.”