Tejas Navale
Pune, January 7, 2025: In a resounding show of dissent, Supriya Sule, Yugendra Pawar, and other party activists of the NCP (SP) party held a massive ‘Jan Aakrosh Andolan’ (Public Outcry) on Tuesday in Baramati. The protest, organised by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP), brought hundreds of activists to the streets, demanding immediate implementation of a minimum support price (MSP) for onions andmilk to protect the livelihoods of struggling farmers.
At the heart of the protest was Tin Hatti Chowk, where demonstrators, sporting black ribbons as a mark of defiance, raised slogans against the central government. Sule, Pawar, and other party leaders joined the crowd in condemning policies they claimed were undermining farmers and rural communities.
The agitation zeroed in on the declining prices of onions, a crisis exacerbated by the central government’s imposition of export duties. Leaders argued that the move has crippled horticultural farmers, as traders find it increasingly unviable to export their produce.
The dairy sector was another focal point of the protest. Sule and other leaders criticised both the central and state governments for neglecting milk producers, particularly in rural areas. They argued that unfair milk pricing has triggered an economic downturn in the countryside, disproportionately affecting rural youth who depend on dairy farming for their livelihood.
Sule highlighted the cascading impact of this crisis on the rural economy, stating, “The economic slowdown in villages stems from the government’s failure to ensure fair pricing for milk. If this continues, it won’t just be farmers who suffer, but the entire rural ecosystem will collapse.”
At this time, key NCP-SP leaders, including Adv. S.N. Jagtap, Adv. Sandeep Gujar, Satyavrat Kale, Vanita Bankar, and Aarti Shendge, participated in the protest.
