MEERUT: Hitting back at the Congress, which has upped the ante against the Modi government's "anti-farmer" policies, BJP state president Laxmikant Bajpai said the sugarcane crisis in the country today was a result of the UPA government's policies. Bajpai also questioned why the Congress's criticism of the state government was restrained when agriculture is a state subject according to the Constitution. 

After party vice president Rahul Gandhi's 7 km-long padyatra in Saharanpur, Congress has planned a series of padyatras across UP to corner the government on its policies regarding farmers. The campaign will begin on December 10, the birthday of party chief Sonia Gandhi. 

"I challenge the Congress party to do a comparative analysis. On all the counts that they oppose the Prime Minister, let's see how they performed when they were in power. Let all the facts come in front of the people and they can judge for themselves. Today Rahul Gandhi is championing the cause of the sugarcane farmers but he conveniently forgets that it was the UPA's policies that created the crisis in the first place. Had they not increased sugar imports so much, the situation would not be so dire. In fact, we are the ones trying to help farmers now," Bajpai told TOI. 

He added saying, "I wonder why their criticism of the Samajwadi Party is so restrained. Perhaps it is a case of chor-chor mausere bhai (all thieves are related). They are both similar parties and they know how bad they both are. It is also possible that they are keeping future alliances in mind. It is ironic that they are targeting us over farmers' issues when agriculture is a state subject according to the Constitution. Despite that, the Prime Minister approved a loan of Rs 6,000 crore so that sugar mills can pay farmers the overdue cane arrears. The rest is up to the state government and they are failing."