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Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Punjab to meet distressed farmers, his proposed padyatra in the suicide-prone Amravati district of Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region and his consistent bid to project the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as pro-industry and anti-farmer, appear to have rattled the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.
Acting swiftly, the government on Wednesday relaxed compensation norms for farmers and lowered moisture content benchmark for grains, according to media reports. The decision was taken during a Cabinet meeting aimed at addressing the country’s agrarian crisis after spells of unseasonal rains and hailstorm ahead of Parliament session.
In Parliament, Gandhi came down heavily on Prime Minister Modi and his government, accusing them of inaction in the face of a massive agrarian crisis.
“Remove their pain, they are crying and your government has done nothing. Your Haryana minister says farmers committing suicide are cowards,” said Gandhi.
“Your PM and ‘our PM’ is now on a tour of India. He must go to Punjab for a few days and visit mandis; he will then understand farmers’ problems. It is your government, it is our government. But it is not the government of farmers and labourers,” added Gandhi.
Attacking Modi’s ‘Make in India’ programme, Gandhi asked: “Does the farmer not make in India?”
Responding to Gandhi’s barbs, Food Minister Ramvilas Paswan said: “We are doing what your government didn’t do. Our government is concerned about farmers. The government will procure each and every grain produced by the farmers.”
Senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said: “Where was Rahul Gandhi when hailstorm was happening? He was then on a vacation.” She asked Gandhi to go to Amethi instead of Punjab for his “drama”.
Gandhi had taken on the Modi government on the land Bill after his return from a nearly two-month-long sabbatical.
