Congress will provide MSP to farmers `legally’, says Rahul Gandhi in MP

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said his party will provide Minimum Support Price (MSP) to farmers legally if it came to power at the Centre.

He was speaking at a public meeting in Morena after his `Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ entered Madhya Pradesh from Rajasthan. The BJP government at the Centre has waived loans of Rs 16 lakh crore of ten to fifteen industrialists but it is denying (legally guaranteed) MSP to farmers, he alleged.

Farmer organisations in Punjab and Haryana are currently agitating for legally guaranteed MSP for crops.

Gandhi also claimed that 73 percent people of the country including Other Backward Classes, Dalits and tribals do not have any representation in the government and various other sectors, and a caste-based census will ensure justice to them.

Such a census will ensure equal participation of these communities in various sectors, the Congress leader said. Earlier in the afternoon, MP Congress president Jitu Patwari welcomed Gandhi and senior leader Ashok Gehlot at the border of Morena district. The Yatra resumed from Dholpur in Rajasthan after a five-day break.