Congress is to blame: Venkaiah
Union parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said that the 50 years of Congress rule had not addressed the ills afflicting the farming sector.
In his intervention lasting 30 minutes in the debate on the agrarian situation after the speech by Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi, Mr Venkaiah Naidu also hit out at the previous UPA dispensation for issuing over 460 ordinances during its tenure compared to about 10 by it.
Later, Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh replied with an over one-hour animated speech in which he accused the Congress governments of not having expanded irrigation capacity. He listed the Centre’s intervention to address the woes of the farmers through relaxation of norms and hiking of compensation.
Mr Venkaiah, countering Opposition charges on the agrarian crisis, said, “Our commitment is to the farmers, poor people and rural people... gave patience for five years.”
Rahul babu, you were in power for 50 years and we have been in power for 9-10 months.... — Venkaiah Naidu
Union parliamentary affairs minister M. Venkaiah Naidu specifically sought to respond to the issues raised by the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi who had accused the Modi government of ignoring the interest of farmers.
“Rahul babu, you were in power for 50 years and we have been in power only 9-10 months,” Mr Naidu said, as he listed out the measures taken by the government to help farmers.
On compensation for farmers, Mr Naidu said “virasat me hame kya mila (what we inherited when we came to power) that also has to be taken into account”.
“We need to seriously look at the issues faced by farmers... We have to put all our heads together to find everlasting long term solutions,” Mr Naidu said.
“13 Central Acts were exempted by my friend, Jairam Ramesh from the purview of the Land Act,” he noted.Refuting Mr Gandhi’s charges, he said, “As a farmer, I want to open up my heart... There is no benefit in scoring brownie points... headline in media cannot be deadline for us.”