Mumbai: In a bid to remind Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his electoral promises to farmers, the Congress party has organised an event called “chai ki charcha” on 16 June in Vidarbha. It is being held precisely in the same village, Dabhadi in Yavatmal district, where Modi had held “chai pe charcha” with farmers in 2014.
“We want to tell Prime Minister Modi that he has failed to deliver on the promise of paying 50% more than the input cost and the minimum support price to farmers. He had made this promise in the same village,” said Congress legislator Manikrao Thakre who is from Yavatmal district.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Digvijay Singh, Maharashtra Congress Committee president and former chief minister Ashok Chavan and former party MP Raj Babbar will address the meeting. Thakre said farmers, in general across the state and particularly in Vidarbha, are “disappointed and angry” that Modi has not fulfilled the promise.
“Far from keeping the promise, the Modi government has only marginally increased the MSP (minimum support price) for crops this year... The MSP of cotton, which is the main crop in Vidarbha and Marathwada, has been increased by only ₹ 60 per quintal. Similarly, the increase in MSP of pulses has been raised by a few hundred rupees when it was needed in the range of thousands,” Thakre said.
During the countdown to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Modi had promised that, if elected, his government would incorporate 50% of the total input cost which would be paid over and above the MSP to make farming profitable. Modi’s “chai pe charcha” initiative was one of the more participative and interactive events of his 2014 campaign.
Thakre said the Congress had named the event “chai ki charcha” to channelize farmers’ unrest and provide a platform. “Our event will actually ask the prime minister what happened to his chai pe charcha with farmers,” Thakre said.
Another senior Congress leader, who did not want to be named, said the party was struggling to revive itself in Maharashtra after the 2014 debacle in both general elections and assembly polls. “We sense that the rural constituency is deeply disappointed with Modi but we have not been able to channelize their unrest. We have not still come out of the defeatist mentality. In urban areas, we are seriously challenged by the lack of credible leadership but we can start revival in rural areas where there is a vacuum,” said the leader.
The Congress in Maharashtra is a deeply divided house with several factions fighting for supremacy. Recently, former MP and Mumbai Congress president Gurudas Kamat quit the party and active politics, reportedly over being ignored by the party high command.
The party leader quoted above also said that the leadership was not able to exploit the allegations of corruption against BJP ministers in Maharashtra because MPCC president Ashok Chavan himself was involved in the Adarsh housing scam. “We need credible faces to attack this government on corruption,” he said.
Calls and text messages made to Chavan’s mobile phone went unanswered.
