Declaring that he was committed to fighting against the Centre’s “attack on farmers”, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday pointed that if the MSP (minimum support price) goes, Punjab, Haryana, and other agricultural states like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan will have no future left.
“I am committed to fighting against the Modi Government’s attack on farmers, just as they had earlier targeted SMEs and small traders with demonetization and GST. I will fight them and stop them,” he declared.
In response to a question on Modi & Co making fun of his protests in Punjab and Haryana, Rahul shrugged it off, pointing out they had done that in February too, when he had first warned bout Corona. “But the truth is there for all to see now,” he said, adding that six months on, everyone will know the truth of what he is saying now on the farm laws too.
Taking a dig at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s earlier statement that India will win the war against COVID-19 in 22 days, he said: “You can see for yourself who talks more sense — Modi or me?...You (media) can decide who is joking.”
Noting that all systems are connected, and destruction of one leads to the ruin of others, Rahul said that the farm laws will end up destroying MSP and PDS for the poor too. “The danger is real and cannot be negated just because Modi & Co are making fun of me,” he remarked.
Rahul slammed the Modi Government for destroying key systems such as SMEs and small businesses, which were the backbone of the nation and were generating employment for lakhs of youth, on directives of big corporate houses.
“The trio of Modi, Ambani and Adani has ruined the structure of employment by destroying SMEs, now they are destroying the foundations of agriculture, and soon the people of India will be left with no jobs, nor food, and no future,” he warned.
Calling the existing food security system a fortress for the farmers, Rahul said that it had needed improvement and reforms, which is what the Congress manifesto had also promised.
He cited key promises of development of the agricultural system through farmer markets, mandis every few kms, farm to fork infrastructure etc. “We never said we will destroy the whole food security system, which Modi has done with these farm laws,” he said.
He warned that this will affect the entire chain of the system, rendering lakhs of people employed in the farming sector jobless, and also ending the subsidies for the poor.
Asked to comment on BJP’s claims that the farm laws, just like demonetization and GST, were major achievements of the Modi government, Rahul told the media to go and ask the small traders and businessmen, and the farmers, whether they considered these actions to be accomplishments or failures. “If the farm laws are an achievement, then why are the farmers not celebrating, why are they not bursting firecrackers with joy?” he asked.
“In any case, if Modi was so confident that these laws were beneficial to farmers, why didn’t he face a debate in Parliament, why did he push the laws during COVID times when the farmers cannot come out on the roads, why did he not hold a press conference or come and meet the farmers in Punjab,” he quipped.
SLAMS MODI FOR NOT SAYING A WORD ON HATHRAS INCIDENT
Rahul Gandhi slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not “uttering a word” on the tragic Hathras incident. “I find it interesting that Prime Minister has not uttered a word about the incident, in which a kid was raped and murdered and her whole family was under attack by the administration,” he said. Maintaining that it was Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s prerogative to see an ‘international conspiracy’ in the Hathras incident, Rahul Gandhi said that he personally sees in it a major tragedy. “Yogi Aditynath is entitled to his opinion, he can imagine what he wants, but what I saw was a lovely girl brutalized and killed, and her family threatened and subjugated,” he said adding that Yogi Adityanath should also have had the decency to do so.
‘MANHANDLING BY UP POLICE WAS MINOR COMPARED TO VICTIM’S FAMILY’S SUFFERINGS’
On he and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra being pushed around and manhandled on way to Hathras, and FIRs being registered against large number of Congress workers by the UP police, Rahul said what he and his party men and women suffered was “minor” compared with what the victim’s family was going through. “They are the ones who have really been pushed around…It was no big deal for me to be pushed around by the cops in UP,” he said, adding that he went there not just for the Hathras victim and her family but for the sake of lakhs of Indian women who suffer, and thousands of women who are raped in the country every day.
‘I FEEL I OWE DEBT TO PUNJAB’
Recalling a childhood memory of how a handful of Sikhs had protected his family when his grandmother Indira Gandhi lost the parliamentary election in 1977, Rahul Gandhi said that he felt he owed a debt to Punjab and Punjabis. “There was nobody in the House except these Sikhs who protected my grandmother,” he recalled. Asked why Punjabis should trust him, Rahul said that the people of Punjab should see his actions and look at his political career, all through which he had always stood with those suffering any injustice. Asserting that he had learnt a lot from Punjabis, Rahul said that he had a lot of appreciation for the Punjabi spirit, and he always had a feeling that “I owe a debt to the people of Punjab”, and “I have similar feelings also for the people of Tamil Nadu”.