NEW DELHI: Congress on Thursday slammed the Modi government for attempting to “stop” its “once flagship” PM Fasal Bima Yojana by halving its share of allocation to the scheme and increasing, as a result, the burden on the farmers in the country.Hitting out at the Modi government for “kicking the ‘anna daata’ in the gut” Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala sought to know how the government would protect farmers’ interests if state governments also decided to follow in the Centre’s footsteps. “The Centre has cut their contribution from 50% to 25% thereby increasing the farmers’ current liability from 2% to 27%. If the states also follow suit, the scheme will become unaffordable for them,” Surjewala said.He also said the government was attempting to “shut down” the PM Fasal Bima Yojana in a “surreptitious manner” by making it “completely unimplementable”. Former Union minister P Chidambaram termed the move to make the crop insurance scheme “voluntary” as “retrograde” and said the government could not have done anything more anti-farmer. “Another example of the BJP government's shortsightedness and misplaced priorities,” he said.