 "Govt's pro-farmer push")
Singling out the Gandhi family, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday accused Congress President and her son Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi of disrupting Parliament to avenge their party's defeat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and blocking the passage of bills aimed at benefitting the poor.
"Those who have lost the election (in 2014) and have come down from 400 to 40 have decided not to allow Modi to work. They have decided to create obstacles and difficulties. The conspiracy for the same is going on," he said. "They have now decided to take revenge from people, from the poor workers" for voting the Congress out of power, he added.
Addressing tea garden workers in Assam, who form a major chunk of voters in the state that is scheduled for Assembly elections later this year, Modi alleged that "one family" was indulging in "negative politics", claiming that leaders in other opposition parties want Parliament to function even though they oppose him. Though the Prime Minister did not name the "family", the reference was clear.
"There are many leaders and parties even in the Opposition who oppose Modi, the BJP and the government but they want Parliament to run and carry out is business. But one family is so rigid that they do not allow the Rajya Sabha to function and let the nation's agenda of development to be taken forward because people of the country have defeated them," Modi said.
His remarks come in the backdrop of a washout of the past two sessions of Parliament because of which key economic reform measures, including the Goods and Services Tax bill and the Land Acquisition bill, have failed to pass. These are expected to be pushed by the government during the upcoming Budget session starting on February 23.
Modi listed a number of pending bills, including one for increasing the income ceiling for bonus to workers and the other related to river transport on Brahmaputra, and blamed their pendency squarely on the Congress and the Gandhi family.
"The country is not going to benefit from this politics of negativism and obstructionism. There is only one family with such a thinking, which has brought this kind of destruction. Leaders in the other Opposition parties are not like this," the Prime Minister said.
"If anybody in politics engages in such negativism and obstructionism, it is not going benefit either them or the nation," he added.
Modi also used the occasion to flag the issue of "Assamese pride" and urged people to give a chance to BJP to form a government in the state. He contended that laws for the welfare of the state could be put in place only when there is a government in Guwahati that listens to the Centre.
