Hitting out at the Narendra Modi-led central government over the issue of implementation and legal guarantee of a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers’ produce, Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik on Sunday, 21 August, said that the schemes for farmers have not seen the light of day due to business magnate Gautam Adani.
Malik said that the country’s farmers cannot be defeated and will continue to protest till their demands are met.
Speaking at a programme at a cow shelter in Kira village in Haryana's Nuh, the governor was quoted as saying the following by an Indian Express report, “If MSP is not implemented and legal guarantee on MSP is not given, there will be another fight and this time it will be a fierce fight. You cannot defeat the farmer of this country. You cannot scare him… since you cannot send ED or Income-Tax officers, how will you scare the farmer?”
"The MSP is not being implemented because the Prime Minister has a friend whose name is Adani, who at the moment has become Asia’s richest person in five years," he said.
“At the Guwahati airport, I met a woman holding a bouquet. When I asked her where she was from, she replied ‘We have come on behalf of Adani’. I asked what does that mean. She said this airport has been handed over to Adani… Adani has been given airports, ports, major schemes…aur ek tarah se desh ko bechne ki taiyari hai [and in a way, the preparation is to sell the country], but we will not let that happen,” he added.
In June, at the International Jat Conference in Jaipur, the Governor had launched a blistering attack on Adani and Ambani, and said that the country's airports, railways, and shipyards are being sold to industrialists.
Earlier this year, the governor stoked a controversy by saying, "When I met Prime Minister Modi on the farmers' issue, I fought with him within 5 minutes. He was very arrogant. When I said that 500 farmers have died, he asked 'Did they die for me?'. I said that yes, you are the king because of them. He told me to meet Amit Shah."
(With inputs from The Indian Express)
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