Why is Congress against the farmers of MP? Shivraj Chouhan writes to Sonia Gandhi

After Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi objecting to efforts of Madhya Pradesh to get a Geographical Identification (GI) tag for its Basmati rice, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has shot a letter to Sonia Gandhi asking why the Congress is against the interests of farmers of Madhya Pradesh.

This is significant ahead of the upcoming by-polls in Madhya Pradesh after the Kamal Nath government had collapsed paving the way for BJP to return to power. Chouhan on Thursday had written to the PM condemning the move of the Punjab government to block a GI tag for MPs Basmati and urged the PM to grant the status to encourage farmers of the state.

“The move of the Punjab CM (to write to the PM) is against the farmers of Madhya Pradesh and exhibits the anti-farmer character of the Congress. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi had promised waiver of farm loans within 10 days of a Congress government being formed in the state but Kamal Nath made a joke of that promise. I want to ask you why the Congress is so against the farmers of Madhya Pradesh. Why is the Congress so disturbed if the farmer of MP makes progress? Not just me, all farmers of Madhya Pradesh are posing this question to you. I expect your answer soon,” Chouhan has written to interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

The CM also has written to Gandhi that while his government is helping farmers in the times of coronavirus by procuring their crop at a good price, the unsympathetic attitude of Congress-ruled states towards farmers was painful. “The former Congress government in MP had also stopped our scheme of giving loans to farmers at 0% interest. They had also not deposited the premium under the Crop Insurance scheme and it is my government which now deposited this premium of Rs 2200 Cr,” the CM has said in his letter. He said a GI Tagging for the Basmati rice of Madhya Pradesh will help increase exports from India and said Madhya Pradesh had been producing Basmati rice for the last 25 years.

The Punjab CM had written to the PM two days ago saying granting GI tag to MP would affect the interests of Punjab and other states whose Basmati already had the GI tag. Chouhan has countered this saying that Basmati exporters of Punjab and Haryana are buying Basmati rice from MP and said the Centre’s export data confirms this.

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