Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday asked why the Centre cannot give farmers a legal guarantee on minimum support price when it is presenting Bharat Ratna to M S Swaminathan and Chaudhary Charan Singh, two personalities who championed the cause of agriculture.
Speaking to reporters during his visit to this district for a function, Yadav hit out at the BJP-led Centre for not fulfilling the demands of the farmers protesting in Punjab and Haryana to press their demands.
The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh said the BJP government at the Centre has promised to make India a five-trillion economy, but this will happen only when the farmers of the country are happy.
If the farmers are prosperous, the country's economy can become even 10 trillion, he added.
"Why is the BJP (at the Centre), which gave 'Bharat Ratna' to former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh who dedicated his life for the interests of farmers and father of Green Revolution MS Swaminathan, not giving the right to minimum support price to the farmers?" Yadav asked.
He said this issue over minimum support price (MSP) is not new.
"Earlier too, big farmer organisations of the country had demanded a law on MSP. Now the same issue has arisen again. Farmers want MSP and they should get the right to it," Yadav said.
Yadav, however, evaded a question on Swami Prasad Maurya resigning from the post of SP general secretary and SP MLA Pallavi Patel expressing displeasure over the party's selection of candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections.
"Sometimes such a time comes in politics. We are watching and people are also watching. A person should not deceive oneself," he said in response.
On a question, he denied that BJP was behind Maurya's resignation.
Maurya, a prominent leader from the backward classes, had resigned from the post of party general secretary on Tuesday, upset with the reactions of SP leaders to his statements.
Meanwhile, Patel, Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader and SP MLA, on Wednesday expressed her displeasure over SP giving tickets to former IAS officer Alok Ranjan and actress Jaya Bachchan for the Rajya Sabha elections, saying, "We are talking about PDA (Backward, Dalit And minorities). Ranjan and Jaya Bachchan are not into PDA. I am not going to vote for this fraud."
