The Congress on Tuesday slammed the Centre for blocking social media handles of farmers, activists, and their supporters, including 35 Facebook accounts, 14 Instagram accounts, 49 Twitter (now X) links and 52 handles, one Snapchat account, and one Reddit account.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said during a media interaction at the AICC headquarters that the Centre let down farmers on the promise of legally guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce.
HT had a day back reported about the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) issuing emergency blocking orders against 177 social media accounts related to farmers’ protests to maintain public order, following a request from the Union ministry of home affairs.
The Congress spokesperson presented several screenshots and videos to target the Centre, one of them being a tweet from 6 April 2014 by PM Modi that said, “Why should our farmers not get the right price? Farmers are not begging; they worked hard for it and should get good prices.”
Khera alleged that the government did not take the farmers into confidence and now wants to control the media and opposition in suppressing the debate on farmers’ issues.
{{/usCountry}}Khera alleged that the government did not take the farmers into confidence and now wants to control the media and opposition in suppressing the debate on farmers’ issues.
{{/usCountry}}Expressing solidarity with the protesting farmers, Khara said the farmers are demanding what was promised to them by PM Modi before 2014, and reiterated his party’s line that if the Congress comes to power after this year’s Lok Sabha election, the new government will provide a legal guarantee for MSP to farmers.
“Narendra Modi is under the pressure of big corporate or foreign nations. Why is PM Modi afraid? Why is he trying to scare the farmers?” Khera asked.