NEW DELHI: Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday accused the Congress of never prioritising the agriculture sector and said the Opposition party had an “anti-farmer DNA” since Independence.
Replying to a discussion on the working of his ministry in the Rajya Sabha, Chouhan said agricultural facilities were poor during the regimes of former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
Silent on the issue of statutory minimum support price, which farmers protesting at Shambhu border are seeking, Chouhan assured the sector of government’s commitment to a “strong and resilient MSP regime” and said the BJP-led NDA govt had enhanced MSP for all crops, compared to the Congress-led UPA govt. “Farmers are not vote banks for us, they are like God,” Chouhan said.