Hitting out at the Centre over "hollow claims" regarding the agri sector in the Union Budget, Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav on Tuesday alleged the government took its "revenge" on farmers for leading a successful movement against the now-repealed farm laws.
This budget has been marked by silence with regard to farmers as there was no mention of doubling the farmer's income or comments on schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), he said.
"As far as farmers are concerned, the message of this budget is clear. The government, humiliated by the farmers' movement, is out to take revenge on them. The budget was characterised by silence," Yadav said in a video message on Twitter.
He said there is no allocation, declaration or dialogue about farmers in the 2022-23 Union Budget.
"Earlier you had beautiful dialogues, talks about farmers in every budget speech, even though there were no allocations. This time, no allocations, no declarations and no dialogues either.
"Clearly, the finance minister and the prime minister are very upset with the farmers," Yadav added.
"This year, the work to double farmers' income was to be completed. The previous five budgets had long poems about doubling the income of farmers. This year, when that work was to be accounted for, there was complete silence about it.
"Since the last two years, we heard about agriculture investment funds of Rs 1 lakh crore. However, just Rs 2,600 crores have been spent," Yadav said.
Presenting the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Centre will promote 'Kisan Drones' for crop assessment, chemical-free natural farming, public-private partnerships for the delivery of digital and high-tech services to farmers across the country during the financial year 2022-23.
Taking a jibe at the Centre over the 'Kisan Drones' announcement, Yadav said, "The government said it will gives drones, like they gave farmer rail earlier. So from satellites, we have come down to drones. Hopefully, one day we will come down to the ground as well. Wait for Amrit Kaal or prepare for struggle."
On Monday, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farm unions that spearheaded the protests against the Centre's agri laws, threatened to resume its agitation if the government does not fulfil promises made to farmers in December last year.
Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh camped at Delhi's borders for over a year, demanding the repeal of the Centre's three contentious farm laws.
They decided to suspend their protest, which began in November 2020, on December 9 last year after the government gave in to their demands and agreed to consider six others, including withdrawal of cases registered against farmers during the agitation, a legal guarantee on MSP and compensation for kin of farmers who died during the course of the protest.
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