AAP protests at Gurgaon BJP MP's house over farmers' issues

Gurgaon, Feb 21 (IANS) A large number of farmers and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters marched to BJP leader and Gurgaon parliamentarian Rao Inderjit Singh's residence, as the party launched its "Jai Kisan Abhiyan" drive here Saturday.

Agitated over continuous injustice to the farmers, the protesters, including farmers affected by land acquisition, took out a procession from Kamla Nehru Park, Gurgaon to the BJP leader's residence in old DLF area, sector 14.

Led by AAP leader and Haryana in-charge Yogendra Yadav, the people wanted to hand over packets of salt and a letter to Singh, to ensure that public representatives do not forget their promises while taking decisions.

"In its Lok Sabha and vidhan sabha manifestoes, the BJP had promised that the minimum support price (MSP) would be fixed by giving 50 percent benefits above the cost of produce," Yadav said.

"Every BJP leader promised this to the farmers in every election speech. Unfortunately, giving 50 percent benefit is a far cry, the government hasn't even ensured the MSP equals the cost of produce and has also failed to even lift some crops."

Besides a salt packet, the people also handed over to Singh a letter signed by farmers, requesting him to take a stand on farmers' issues in parliament.

Yadav accused the centre and the government of Haryana of being insensitive towards issues concerning farmers, saying there has been four-fold cheating in a short tenure of 10 months at the centre and four months in the state.

"The central government passed an ordinance on December 31 nullifying many pro-farmer rules and making the land acquisition act unjustifiable for farmers," he said.

The AAP's four MPs will oppose the anti-farmer ordinance when it comes up for discussion in parliament, he added.

The party has alleged that the central government created an artificial and man-made scarcity of urea which played havoc with farmers, dependent on the fertiliser for their farming needs.

AAP has demanded a thorough investigation into the urea scarcity so that farmers could know the exact reasons behind it.