On Monday, as Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra marched on its 115th day and witnessed an all-women walk, Rahul Gandhi met with farmer leaders and discussed various farmer-related issues including a guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all crops.
Gandhi and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda met with farmers and kin of the farmers who died during the large-scale protest against the Centre government seeking abolishment of three controversial farm laws in 2020-21.
Former Congress chief spoke for almost an hour with the farmer leaders while he was in the Shahbad grain market, during which they discussed the guaranteed MSP and the Swaminathan Commission report with him.
Rakesh Tikait, the leader of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, Yogendra Yadav, Yudhvir Singh, Jagdip Singh Aulakh, and Satpal Kaushik were among the delegation of farmer leaders.
We have talked extensively about the concerns and issues related to farmers, as well as potential solutions for their welfare in the states governed by the Congress, particularly in Himachal Pradesh and Chattisgarh, the farmer leaders told the media.
The administration, according to the farmer leaders, is unconcerned about the protests even if sugarcane farmers are reportedly in the streets. If the farmers' revenue had doubled from 2015 to 2016, the sugarcane rate would have been Rs 634 per quintal as opposed to Rs 362.
We also talked about the topic of a guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for all crops, and we requested that he include it in the Congress party's platform for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, they added.
Meanwhile, on the 115th day of the yatra, which was focused on empowering women in Haryana, a sizable contingent of women marched behind Gandhi in the bone-chilling cold and dense fog.
"Today is women power day in Haryana leg of Bharat Jodo Yatra. Equal opportunities will empower women power. This is how we will take women forward", the Congress party tweeted via its official handle.
On Monday night, the yatra arrived in the Ambala district near Mohra, and will enter the border state of Punjab on January 11.
