Rahul Gandhi Marches For Farmers, Targets PM Modi

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is holding a march in Uttar Pradesh's Sarsawa today to show solidarity with sugarcane farmers, who are yet to receive their dues. Assembly elections are due in the state in 2017.

During his stopovers on the way, Mr Gandhi took on Prime  Minister  Narendra Modi, alleging that his promised "acche din" is yet to come for the farmers, the labourers and the economically weaker sections.

A lot of people had voted for Modiji in the Lok Sabha elections...  He had said acche din (good times) will come. Now, when we say that, people laugh," Mr Gandhi said.

"Modiji goes to different countries, but no acche din for India," he said, taking a dig at the Prime Minister, who is currently on a visit to Malaysia and Singapore.

Mr Gandhi's party, the Congress, had been part of the Grand Alliance that had swept the assembly elections in Bihar, decimating the BJP-led NDA. The party now plans to take on the government in a big way in the coming winter session of Parliament, which begins on November 26.

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Over the last couple of sessions, the party had managed to block several key legislations of the government, including the land bill, taking up the cause of farmers and land owners.

This time, the Congress has taken on the government over the payment for cane farmers, which is pending. Concerned over the growing arrears - amounting to more than Rs 21,000 crore -- the government has fixed a Rs 4.5 subsidy per quintal crushed, which, it said, will be paid directly to the farmers.  

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The UPA government, Mr Gandhi said, waived off loans worth Rs 70,000 crore. In Haryana and other Congress governments, the minimum support price, he said, went up every year.

"But when poor farmers and labourers go, the doors are shut for them," he added.