The Congress on Tuesday announced that minimum support price (MSP) will be a legal guarantee if it comes to power in 2024, on a day farmers faced repression as they struggled to reach Delhi in support of their long-pending demands.

Although the Congress was planning the promise of MSP to be part of its election manifesto, the national outcry over the unsettling visuals of concrete boulders and barbed wires blocking the farmers’ entry into the nation’s capital, nails planted on the roads and teargas shells fired to disperse the marching crowds by BJP governments forced an early announcement.

Addressing a Congress workers’ convention at Ambikpur in Chhattisgarh, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi said the party's government would accept all the demands of the farmers, apart from a law guaranteeing MSP. Expressing anguish and shock at the Narendra Modi government’s "betrayal and repression", they said the Swaminathan committee recommendations would be implemented in full.

Congress president Kharge later said on X: “This is a historic day for farmers. The Congress has decided to implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendations. This will change the lives of 15 crore farming families. This is the first guarantee of the Congress justice regime.”

Rahul posted this message: “The Congress has taken a historic pledge. We will make an MSP law on the basis of Swaminathan Commission recommendations. Fifteen crore families will gain from this.”

Addressing the meeting in Ambikapur, Kharge said: “Modi will give Bharat Ratna to M.S. Swaminathan but won’t accept his suggestions. What has Modi done for farmers? He has taxed agricultural equipment and fertilizers. He is trying to terrorise farmers with concrete barricades, nails, teargas shells and batons. Is this how you deal with farmers in a democracy?"

Recalling the unfulfilled promises made since 2014, Kharge added: “He said farmers’ incomes will be doubled. He promised Rs 15 lakh in every account and two crore jobs every year. Now he is giving newer guarantees. He will promise you the sky. All his claims and guarantees are bogus. He is jhoothon ka sardar (king of lies). It makes me angry that some people still trust him despite his lies.”

Expressing whole-hearted support for the fresh farmers’ agitation, Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said at a media conference: “History will remember Modi’s cruel and barbaric repression of farmers. The BJP governments in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are treating farmers as if they are an enemy force coming for a coup in Delhi. Delhi's borders look like a war zone with concrete boulders, barbed wires, nails and heavy deployment of paramilitary forces. Roads have been dug up at several places. Cemented walls have been erected. Internet services have been shut down. Are farmers coming for a war?”

Expressing anguish at the undemocratic response of the Modi government, Surjewala asked: “Where should the farmers go to seek justice if not Delhi? Should they march to the United Nations? Why did the Modi government not fulfil its assurances given at the time of the previous movement? Farmers don’t tolerate Shakuni-like conspiracies and deceit. The Prime Minister should call the farmers to Delhi, hold a dialogue and accept their demands.”