New Delhi: Back from a tour of Punjab mandis, Rahul Gandhi today targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the plight of farmers triggering an uproar in Lok Sabha.
The Congress Vice President accused the government of not procuring the the produce of farmers, a charge that was flatly rejected by Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Gandhi said he wanted to apprise the House of the pain and problems of the Punjab farmer whose produce is lying in Mandis and is not being procured by the government.
Targeting the Prime Minister, he said he is on tours and should also visit Punjab so that he understands the plight of farmers.
Amid protests from BJP benches, Gandhi also took a swipe at the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, questioning whether farmers are not contributing to ‘Make in India’ by providing food to the entire country.
“When there was hailstorm, the government did not help. State governmments used to give bonus, farmers tolerated its non-payment. Farmers were lathicharged when they asked for fertiliser. Now their produce is not being lifted from mandis”, said Gandhi who visited mandis in Punjab yesterday.
“While farmers in the mandis are crying, the Haryana Agriculture Minister is saying farmers committing suicide are cowards”, he said amid cries of “shame, shame” from the opposition.
Paswan rejected all Gandhi’s charges, insisting that the government under the leadership of Modi had taken several decisions for the welfare of farmers which had not happened in the past 10 years of the UPA.
Contending that the Prime Minister is not only concerned about the welfare of farmers, Paswan said he has proactively taken several steps to help the farmers hit hard by unseasonal rains and hailstorm. There was uproar over the issue, leading to adjournment of the House for 10 minutes. Slamming the minister’s remarks, Tanwar said “a farmer is not coward, but those who are sitting in the government and escape from responsibility are the biggest cowards.”
He also said that “a farmer, who feeds the nation and whose children guard our borders, is brave”. “We demand that either he should resign or he should be sacked by the Chief Minister,” the Congress leader said. However, Dhankar today said the state government is doing its best to help the farmers and remained unrepentant about his remarks. “I stand by my previous statement,” the Minister said. “Drama is taking place ‘suicide, suicide’. I am doing my best to help the farmers…. I have been working with farmers since last 10 years. There are (crop) failures but committing suicide is not a solution. “Facilities should be there so that they can restart from zero. We are with the farmers…. A drama happened in Delhi. Everyone saw it. That should not happen,” he said. Referring to the Delhi incident, Dhankar yesterday told reporters, “One party termed it as motivated murder… it is unfortunate that a farmer had taken such a step in the presence of no less than a person than the Chief Minister himself”. He also added, “People of Haryana are strong, they do not leave burden on their wives and innocent children, they themselves face the challenges. They are brave soldiers. In everyone’s life there are difficulties and one has to face them and move on.” The Haryana Minister’s comments came on queries related to incidents of farmers allegedly committing suicide because of heavy crop damage and if the government was contemplating to give any compensation to their kin. “This is not an issue to be assessed. Society does not stand with cowards, fugitives…after all who does not face difficulties in one’s life, but one has to face it strongly,” he said. Earlier on Tuesday, when asked about the issue, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said that it was very difficult to find out the actual reasons behind such incidents of suicide.
“It is always painful if somebody dies. It is difficult to know reasons for he takes his life which may be because of old debt, poor financial condition,” Khattar had said. (PTI)
