BIG FACE-OFF OVER FARMERS, LAND Rahul takes aim at ‘suit boot sarkar’

Scindia propped Rahul with keywords

In the third Lok Sabha speech of his 11-year parliamentary career, and the first one this Budget Session, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi mounted his sharpest ever attack on the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, accusing it of being a “suitboot sarkar” and “pro-corporate”.

His 25-minute speech was laced with a lot of jibes as he played with the words “achche din government” and criticised the government for not addressing the distress of the farmers affected by unseasonal rain and hailstorms.

Reeling out statistics to drive home the points that the previous UPA government had ensured four per cent agricultural growth, with substantial growth in farm credit and minimum support prices, Mr Gandhi claimed agricultural growth had slumped to a mere one per cent under the NDA government while farm credit had grown by just about five per cent and that the MSP was stagnant.

You are making a blunder by harm

ing farmers and labourers and they will harm you in

future. — Rahul Gandhi

While Rahul Gandhi awaited his turn to speak on the agrarian crisis under Rule 193, Mr Gandhi was seen being advised by an animated Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, who kept propping up his leader with key words during his speech.

NCP MP, Tariq Anwar, sitting beside Mr Gandhi, was also seen propping him up with Hindi words.

Mr Gandhi was interrupted by the Treasury benches asking him to speak in Hindi, while a few BJP MPs sought to taunt him for his “sabbatical.”

Smiling at the interruptions, Mr Gandhi offered a few suggestions to the Prime Minister, saying if the government chooses farmers and the poor, the people would reward him with more electoral successes. “The achche din government has failed the country on the issue of farmers. It has ignored the farming community, while favouring the industrialists and rich people, which is a blunder, as the farmers will harm the BJP in future,” he said.

To his “aapke (your) Prime Minister”, the BJP MPs asked him to say “desh ke Pradhan Mantri (the country’s Prime Minister)”, to which Mr Gandhi retorted, “Achcha to aapke PM nahi hain, desh ke hain (So you accept he’s not your PM, but of the country).”

When he abruptly concluded his speech, Mr Scindia was heard saying loudly, “Well done, well done.”