On Wednesday, farmers in Punjab held a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s arrival at Shiromani Akali Dal (S.A.D) organized rally in Malout town, 275 kilometers away from Chandigarh. They showed black flags as Modi arrived to address the rally.
S.A.D organized the “thanksgiving rally” to register the hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy. According to the S.A.D President, Sukhbir Singh Badal, the MSP hike is an “unprecedented historic increase.”
Farmers from nearby states including Haryana and Rajasthan also participated in the rally.
Narendra Modi arrived at the venue under tight security arrangements. The Punjab police along with other security agencies stopped the protesting farmers at a distance from the venue and detained some farmers.
During his address, PM Modi congratulated the Union Cabinet for such a historic rise in MSP. He pledged to look into the welfare of the farming community. He further assured doubling the farmers’ income by 2022.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, on the other hand, considers the hike in MSP as a “cosmetic measure” that does not solve the main problems of the farming community.
