NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday said its national convener Arvind Kejriwal will begin a two-day tour of Gujarat from Saturday. Kejriwal will reach Rajkot on Saturday and will address a big rally of cotton farmers in Chotila the next day. The AAP chief has been opposing the abolition of import duty on cotton and had recently raised the issue in a press conference in Delhi as well. On August 28, Kejriwal demanded that India impose higher tariffs on US imports and alleged that the BJP-led central government’s decision to waive the 11 per cent duty on American cotton would hurt local farmers. “India used to impose 11 per cent duty on cotton imported from America. This meant that the American cotton was costlier than homegrown cotton. But the Modi government has decided to waive his duty from August 19 till September 30. This means that textile industries will get cheaper cotton.”When our cotton will come in the market for sale in October, there will be few takers,” he said. The finance ministry has since extended the duty exemption till December 31 to support textile exporters facing steep 50 per cent tariffs in the US. Kejriwal said farmers in Gujarat, Punjab, Telangana and Vidarbha will be severely affected. He demanded that the Centre reimpose the duty and urged political parties and farmers’ organisations to raise the issue at the September 7 rally in Chotila.
