A group of five MPs from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) paid a visit to the farmers demonstrating at the Khanauri-Data Singh Wala border on Monday, a few days after the Parliamentary elections ended and as the protests at the Punjab-Haryana borders approached their fourth month.
The TMC delegation promised the farmers that their concerns would be discussed in the next parliamentary session and expressed solidarity with them in their demand for a legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) based on C2+50%. The MPs expressed TMC chief Mamata Banerjee’s profound concern for the farmers’ situation, which has prompted them to stage ongoing protests. After hearing the farmers’ complaints, they pledged to press the national government to accede to their requests.
Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose said, “We 5 MPs visited the Khanauri border to meet protesting farmers. Our leader Mamata spoke to the farm leaders via phone to assure them of our support. AITC will fight shoulder to shoulder with the Annadaata for their demands and justice to farmers.”
“Mamata Banerjee is very close to Kisan Andolan, she went on hunger strike for 26 days in 2006 to protest against land acquisition in Singur. We will raise the issues of the farmers in Parliament and at every available forum. We are always standing with India’s Annadatas,” she added.
The leader of the non-political Farmer Forum SKM, Jagjit Singh Dallewal, claimed that despite their nearly four-month-long protests at the Punjab-Haryana borders, the central government has disregarded their demand for a legal right to MSP in accordance with the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission.