Digging out an old leaf from the statements made by late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Gandhi dynasty of having little knowledge about farmers' issues.
Addressing a public rally here, Prime Minister Modi said, "If the 'naamdaar' (dynast) is told that green chillies pay less to farmers than red chilli, he will give a speech saying that farmers must not cultivate green chilli but produce crops of red chilli. The person, who cannot differentiate between green chilli and red chilli, will now preach us about farmers!"
It is said that Rajiv Gandhi while campaigning among the farming community was once told that the red chilli pepper is costlier than green chilli pepper. Mulling over the idea, Rajiv Gandhi in his following speech, reportedly asked the farmers: "Why are you growing 'green' chilli pepper when it is the red variety that can fetch you higher margins?" The fact that it is the green chilli that indeed turns into red and is not grown directly was lost on the then Congress leader.
Prime Minister Modi also blamed the family for the ill-fate of farmers saying, "If the farmers of the country are in acute condition today, it is because of the mis-governance of 70 years. I say it with conviction that had Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, son of a farmer, become the first Prime Minister of India, the farmers' community would not have been in such a condition. The four generations of the same (Gandhi) family, who neither understand farmers nor agriculture, made such policies that it has ruined the farming community completely."
The Prime Minister further blamed the Congress of backtracking on their promise of loan waiver in Karnataka, saying: "They made the promise of loan waiver in Karnataka. They lost in the state but still made government through the backdoor. Now when the farmers are demanding to waive off their loans, they are being put in jail. Are you going to trust such a party?"
He seized the opportunity to launch an attack on the Congress and its past leadership for ignoring the significance of Kartarpur. "When India got independence in 1947, there was so much of a hurry to occupy the seat of governance. It is the result of the mistakes that were made in the partition that such pious land of Guru Nanak, Kartarpur, was given away to Pakistan," he said.
He added, "This is the lack of understanding of Congress and lack of their sensibility that they could see nothing other than the post of power. Congress remained in power for 70 years, big talks happened but nothing was done to pay obeisance to Guru Nanak Dev ji. It is my fortune that my cabinet took this decision of opening the Kartarpur corridor."
Prime Minister Modi once again outlined the significance of surgical strikes and also highlighted that his government has faced no corruption charge in so many years. "If you look at the headlines before we came to power, there were news of scams and corruption all the time. Today in the past five years not a single such news has come. Lakhs and crores of money have been saved because of the right vote of the people," he said.
"Pakistan would always create trouble in the country. In the last 70 years they have seen such governments that they knew that they could kill and run away and nothing would happen. There always existed soldiers, courage and enemies yet no action was taken. We did a surgical strike and showcased the bravery of our soldiers," he emphasised.
Touching upon the solar revolution in the country, Prime Minister Modi mentioned that 28 lakh solar pumps will be provided to farmers in future. "The solar pumps will be installed on the boundaries of the farmlands. They can use the power generated from it and can also sell the excess power," he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also talked about Navy Day being observed by India today and narrated the achievement of the six members strong all-women crew who after successfully circumnavigating the globe for eight months, returned back to India in May this year.
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