Lucknow, Feb 3 (IANS) Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday criticised the Centre over the India-US trade deal, alleging that opening India’s agricultural market to American farm produce and food grains amounts to a betrayal of farmers. Yadav claimed that nearly 70 per cent of the country’s population depends on agriculture and questioned whether the BJP-led government was deliberately weakening India’s self-reliant farming system under foreign pressure.

In a post on X, the SP chief said the BJP had once again attacked farmers and demanded to know what pressure had compelled the government to open the Indian market to American agricultural products.  He alleged that the move would undermine the livelihoods of millions of farmers and accused the BJP and its allies of acting as agents of foreign interests. Targeting the BJP’s claims of promoting self-reliance and Swadeshi, Yadav said the party should explain to the public how much “commission” it had earned by compromising the country’s economy.

He further warned that the move would not only hurt farmers but also impact the lower middle class and middle class by creating a new class of profiteers and middlemen in food grains and agricultural commodities. This will lead to a rise in prices of essential food items, he said. He alleged that political funding from corporate players would further push up prices. Yadav also cautioned that farmers’ incomes would gradually decline, forcing them to sell their land to wealthy individuals and corporations. “Land acquisition is the ultimate objective of the BJP and its associates,” he alleged.

Referring to the Seed Bill, the SP leader described it as dangerous for Indian agriculture and blamed the BJP government for introducing policies that, he claimed, favour corporate interests over farmers. He also accused the government of repeatedly humiliating farmers by forcing them to queue for fertilisers. Yadav alleged that the BJP benefits at every stage of the agricultural cycle -- from seeds and pesticides to storage, crop insurance, price fixation and procurement -- through commissions and middlemen. 

He warned that the use of such seeds would destroy farming under Indian conditions. He called for strong and systematic opposition to this. He said farmers, already burdened by rising prices and the problem of stray cattle, would no longer bear what he termed the excesses of the BJP government. “The BJP was, is and will remain anti-farmer. Remove the BJP and save our farms, farming and farmers,” he said.

--IANS