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Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 20
Returning to Parliament after a two-month hiatus, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today dubbed the Centre “suit-boot ki sarkaar” and rattled senior ministers with his repeated anti-Narendra Modi jibes.
He was speaking during an ongoing debate in the Lok Sabha on the prevailing agrarian crisis in the country — his maiden speech since the 16th Lok Sabha was constituted after the Congress’ crushing defeat in May 2014 General Election.
As an “all-new” Rahul took his aggression against Prime Minister Modi from the street to Parliament, the Treasury benches appeared restive with ruling MPs making repeated attempts to corner the Gandhi scion. They almost got him when he addressed Modi as “Aapke (read BJP’s) Prime Minister” saying Modi was India’s PM. But Rahul displayed political wit to score back by casually asking his rivals: “Achha to voh desh ke Pradhan Mantri Hain…par kya aapke Pradhan Mantri nahi hain (So he is India’s PM... but isn’t he your PM).
At the heart of the Congress vice-president’s attack was his party’s well-crafted political offensive against the Modi-led government, which he repeatedly described in his speech as “anti-farmer and anti-worker”. “I am sorry to say that this “acche din” government has failed the nation on MSP and agriculture,” Rahul said. With the PM absent, Rahul offered him some pieces of advice. “I have a suggestion for the PM.
Experts say 180 lakh hectare area had suffered crop damages; PM says 106 lakh hectares and Agriculture Minister says 80 lakh hectares has been affected. Who is speaking the truth? I suggest the PM personally travels to the affected areas to assess the damage,” said Rahul, who earlier took swipes at Union Minister Nitin Gadkari who had said farmers should depend neither on the government nor on God.
“I wish to praise Gadkari…he is the only one speaking the truth in this government,” Rahul said as his MP friends Deepender Hooda and Jyotoraditya Scindia shielded him from the Treasury onslaught.
Rahul’s second advice to the PM was political. “The PM is politically shrewd. He has won an election. It would be politically gainful for him to switch sides from corporates to farmers because 67 per cent Indians depend on agriculture,” said Rahul, signing off with a warning to the BJP: “If you don’t stop hurting farmers, they will hurt you.”
As the Congress leader finished his attack terming farmers “India’s real strength”, he provoked caustic reactions from Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu who said the BJP was not one-man party that depended on the PM alone to assess the crop damage. “Our ministers were on the ground,” he said.
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