Promising to fight farmers' case if elected to the Lok Sabha, Congress candidate from Gurdaspur seat Sunil Jakhar said the BJP-led Union government has ruined India's agrarian economy and ignored the farming community.
In the absence of a representative in the Lok Sabha, farmers in Gurdaspur find themseleves ignored by the Centre on important decisions, including the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Jakhar said at his public meetings in Gurdaspur, Dera Baba Nanak and Batala.
The Narendra Modi government imposed GST on tractors and flour without consulting farmers already burdened by loans, he said, promising to fight for the rights of the community in the Lok Sabha if elected in the October 11 by-poll.
As a farmer himself, Jakhar said, he understands the plight of the community. The central government has been promoting the interests of big corporate houses only, he said.
He wondered how former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal failed to understand the problems faced by the farmers and take them up with the Centre during his tenure.
Jakhar alleged that the previous Badal government, and now the Modi government, believe in filling their coffers, ignoring the common man.
Modi wears a Rs 4.5-crore suit, but the common man is worried about arranging Rs 450 for his child's school fee, he added.
The Congress nominee criticised Modi for the "spiralling prices" of essential commodities, particularly petrol and diesel, and said he would fight the anti-people policies of the central government if elected from Gurdaspur.
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