Unfair MSP for this Kharif season will push large section of farmers into debt: CPI(M)

The CPI(M) has claimed that rising input costs along with ''unfair'' minimum support price (MSP) for this Kharif season will push a large section of the country's farmers, especially the marginal ones and tenants, into debt.

The latest editorial in party mouthpiece People's Democracy said while it was claimed that the new MSP would ''ensure remunerative prices to farmers for their produce and encourage crop diversification'', in reality, it ''belies the hopes of farmers and inflicts huge losses to their incomes''.

The Union government on June 7 announced an increase of Rs 143 in the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy to Rs 2,183 per quintal for this year.

''Let alone encouraging crop diversification, it discourages farmers from investing in agriculture. Rather than doubling farmers’ income as claimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, rising input costs coupled with unfair MSP will push large sections of the farmers especially, the small, marginal, middle as well as tenants into debt,'' it said. The editorial alleged that for the ninth year in succession, the minimum support price announced ''betrays'' PM Modi's promise that the rate for procurement of crops by the government will be fixed following the Swaminathan Commission C2+50 per cent formula.

It means the MSP should be based on the total cost of the crop (C2) and the profit thereon is 50 per cent.

''The three Farm Acts brought earlier and the amendments to the Electricity Act are all part of the game plan to squeeze farmers out of cultivation. It is in this context that united struggles to ensure legal guarantee of MSP with assured procurement are relevant and need to be intensified,'' it said. In a separate editorial, the CPI(M) mockingly said that the ''true meaning of 'Amrit Kaal' is unfolding with the relentless attacks on the Muslim minorities accompanied by hate speech and glorification of Gandhiji's killer Godse''.

Referring to the renaming of cities in Maharashtra, the editorial said these changes were accompanied by ''majoritarian triumphalism and the demonising of Muslim rulers and historical figures.'' ''In BJP-ruled states, putting Muslims in their place and disempowering them economically seems to be a deliberate policy.'' In Uttarakhand, where Muslims are a tiny proportion of the population, shopkeepers belonging to the minority community in Uttarkashi's Purola, have been asked to vacate their shops. Muslim shops have been marked with a black cross and an ultimatum was given to them to vacate by June 15, it claimed.

''Motivating such Muslim baiting is the politics of hate and bigotry of the BJP and RSS combine,'' the editorial alleged.

The editorial also highlighted Union Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh calling Nathuram Godse a ''saput'' (worthy son) of India and former Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat calling him a patriot.

''At all levels of the BJP, Godse-loving is the norm,'' it claimed, adding, ''The veneration of Savarkar, another Gandhi hater, is an accompanying chorus. A party glorifying Godse and setting out to establish a Hindutva Rashtra is what the New India is all about.''