NEW DELHI: Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has in a video statement dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s X claims on Indo-US trade deal being “anti-farmer” and called him a “drama artist” and “peddler of false allegations”.
“Rahul Gandhi has once again rolled out a stage-managed, most artificial and fake narrative. This time, he is shooting from the shoulders of a few Congress party activists, who are pretending to be farmer leaders – in a completely baseless conversation…
“Farmers’ interests have been fully protected in the Indo-US trade deal. This agreement will help our farmers. I have already announced many times, that soybean meal and maize, that is corn, have not been given any concession whatsoever, and hence, does not hurt farmers’ interests,” Goyal said.
On apples, he said India was already importing approximately 5,50,000 tonnes every year due to high demand and low production.
“We have not allowed unlimited imports of apples. We have only given a quota — much less than our current imports, which will only be allowed at Minimum Import Price of Rs 80 per kg and duty of Rs 25 will be charged on it — which will make the landed cost Rs 105, against the current landed cost of Rs 75 per kg,” said Goyal.
The minister said one of the comments by Gandhi was about walnuts.
“We are already importing nearly 60,000 MT of walnut in a year, against which we have only offered a quota of 13,000 MT to the USA at a slightly reduced import duty. Please explain how this will in any way hurt our farmers?” Goyal said.
In the statement he said, “It is a shame that Rahul Gandhi falsely claims that they had closed the doors to imports during the Congress rule.”
“The fact is that during the Congress rule, India imported nearly 20 billion dollars of agricultural products. The Congress was also allowing import of dairy products.
There is a shortage of certain agricultural products which are imported right from the days of Congress rule,” he said, asking Gandhi to “stop betraying the farmers by misleading them”.
“Mr Rahul Gandhi, today you stand completely exposed as a drama artist and a relentless peddler of fake, baseless allegations and fabricated stories,” the minister said as the Congress and government face off over the Indo-US trade deal takeaways escalated.
Goyal’s statement came in response to posts by Gandhi after meeting a set of farmer leaders yesterday in the company of Congress Kisan cell chief Sukhpal Khaira.