Describing the Food Security Bill as "historic", Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today asked partymen to take its message to grassroots and prepare the people to fight for their legal entitlement.
"We have given them a right. You prepare them to fight," was the message of Gandhi's brief speech at the opening of a meeting of PCC chiefs and CLP leaders of all states on the food security issue even as partymen clamoured against Opposition parties appropriating central government schemes in many states.
The meeting, which was also addressed by Union Ministers Jairam Ramesh and K V Thomas, saw demands for naming the food security law after late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and giving a greater say to Congressmen in its implementation in opposition-ruled states.
Gandhi said Congress, after fulfilling committments like Right to Education, Right to Information, Right to Employment (MNREGA), Right to Identity (Aadhar), has brought Right to Food.
"This is for the first time in the history of the country that any government is legislating to give a right to food to citizens...You take the message in blocks and villages," Gandhi told the participants.
