The Congress today hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi terming his claims made at a farmers' rally in Malout in Punjab as mere 'jumlas' (rhetoric) and accused him of making "false promises" to the peasantry.
Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said what Modi claimed at the rally today were far from reality and alleged that his government had not kept its promises towards farmers as she dubbed the prime minister as "jumlon ka sartaj" and "jumlon ka badshah".
She also dubbed as an "epic flop" the farmers rally that was addressed by the prime minister in Punjab, alleging that no farmers attended the programme and those "hired" by the BJP were not impressed by Modi's rhetoric.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first farmer rally in Punjab after announcing the jumla' of MSP was an epic flop. There were no farmers in the rally, neither the rented crowd, nor their own BJP workers were impressed by his speech laced with white lies.
"It is time Modiji faced the stark reality and the poor response of the farmers to his speech today is a clear indicator of Modi losing grip on the narrative," she told reporters.
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She alleged that the prime minister in his speech in Malout in Punjab came up with a whole "set of lies" and "jumlas" to mislead the farmers and the nation at large.
She said the government's announcement of raising minimum support price (MSP) for kharif crops to one-and-half times the cost of production was another "jumla".
"Will Modiji tell the farmers that had they given Cost plus 50 pc Profit' in real terms in the past four years, farmers would have earned an additional Rs 2 lakh crore. But Modiji and BJP will not tell this fact to the nation," she said.
She also asked whether Modi will tell the country on the increase in inputs costs due to high diesel prices, high fertilizer prices that have risen by 24 per cent.
She also cited the high diesel prices that farmers have to pay for farming as the commodity has seen a continuous rise for the last six days.
Chaturvedi alleged that Modi has had numerous "encounters with truth" on the soil health cards introduced by his government, whereas the same were started in 2009 under the UPA and five crore were distributed by 2012 itself.
The Congress leader also asked why Modi did not even mention PM's Fasal Bima Yojana today as it has benefitted private insurance companies instead of farmers.
"Will Modiji tell the farmers of India that for the first time ever in India's independent history his government has taxed agriculture through GST?
"Will Modiji explain to the farmers of Punjab that while our government waived off farmers loans of over 1 lakh farmers as soon as they formed the government while during SAD- BJP the farmers faced," she said.
There is a big difference in what Modi ji says and does.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today accused the Congress of betraying the farmers and using them only as a vote bank to further the interests of "one particular family".
Addressing a rally in Punjab's Malwa belt, he said despite toiling hard, farmers had lived a life of despair for decades because of the policies of Congress-led governments.
Modi said the NDA government has now taken several steps for the benefit of farmers, which was making the Congress and its allies lose sleep.
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