Headlines
Rahul slams Modi, gives government zero marks
Lucknow, May 18
In a scathing attack on Narendra Modi-led government, Congress
vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused him of being anti-farmer
and gave his government "zero" marks.
On a visit to his Lok Sabha
constituency of Amethi, Gandhi told party supporters that he was asked
by a journalist to rate the Modi government on a scale of 1 to 10.
Gandhi
said he could tell how much people would give marks. "On one hand, the
farmers, the poor, the labourers, youth in want of jobs, the Dalits,
they will give zero marks. On the other, Modi-ji's industrialist friends
will give him full marks. This is the difference."
Also taking
pot-shot at the prime minister, Gandhi said only his industrialist
friends could give him a 10 on 10 as they were the ones being benefitted
by the one-year-old government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Criticising
the cancellation of the food park in Amethi by the BJP-led National
Democratic Alliance government, Gandhi said it was done due to "politics
of revenge".
"If they want to get even with me, they are free to
do so but why harm the interests and compromise the welfare of the
farmers?" he told reporters at the site where the food park was to come
up.
"Had the food park taken off, farmers of 10 districts would
have been directly selling their produce to 40 food-processing units,"
he said while slamming the BJP for "being grossly unfair to the farmers,
labourers and the poor of Amethi".
Referring to the stalemate in
parliament over the land acquisition bill, the Congress vice president
said his party would not yield to the government on the issue and would
rather go ahead with its opposition.
In the eventuality of the
bill getting through in parliament, the Amethi MP said, his party will
oppose it on the streets of the country.
On the second day of
his visit on Tuesday, Gandhi would be meeting farmers in Sangrampur who
lost their crops due to unseasonal rains and hail.
Surya Pratap
Shahi, former state BJP president, replied to Gandhi's barbs, saying the
Congress leader had neither any concern for farmers nor any knowledge.
"He
is a seasonal leader who comes out from hibernation from time to time.
The farmers know what Modi government is doing for them and by repeating
a lie repeatedly would not turn the tide in Congress' favour," Shahi
told IANS.
Meanwhile, saying Rahul Gandhi was being "merciful" in
allocating "zero" marks to the Modi government over its performance,
Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed told IANS: "Had it been me
(instead of Rahul Gandhi), I would have given him marks in minus."
"If
you snatch land of the farmers and the poor and give it to
industrialists, then they will certainly give you zero marks or even
would mark you in minus," he said.