Cong paid only lip service to farmers: BJP

Hitting back at Congress over its "anti-farmer" barb at the Modi government, BJP today said the opposition party has suffered successive electoral defeats as it paid merely "lip service" to farmers' concerns while agriculture has seen maximum growth in states ruled by it.

"Congress in its rule paid lip service to the concerns of farmers and in fact cheated them of their lands. It lost in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and has been losing one state election after another due to its anti-farmer and anti-people policies. For it to accuse us of being anti-farmer is ironical.

"BJP-ruled states ensured uninterrupted power and water to farmers and built rural infrastructure like roads. They have clocked double-digit growth in farm sector. The Modi government has boosted agriculture with its farm insurance policy, soil health cards and Rs 90,000 crore of irrigation projects," the party's National Secretary Shrikant Sharma said.
 

Congress, including its Vice President Rahul Gandhi, who is leading a 'mahayatra' in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, has been targeting the central government over its alleged anti-farmer policies.

Sharma also cited the example of water-scarce Kutch region in Gujarat and the BJP government's efforts to bring Narmada river water there to buttress his arguments. Narmada water has been taken to the BSF personnel at borders too, he said.

While Congress did "nothing" for farmers, BJP has come out with several schemes, including Mudra project and increased MSP on pulses, to "economically empower" them, he said.

Sharma said farmers did not get adequate urea under the Congress' rule due to its shortage, but the BJP government has ensured that it is available to all farmers by introducing neam-coated urea which has stopped its diversion to black market for industrial usage.

People have rejected Congress due to its politics of "corruption, commission and mis-governance", he alleged, maintaining that is why it has been targeting the government in frustration.