At UP rally, Modi mocks ‘unwanted hug’
SHAHJAHANPUR : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took a swipe at the “unwanted hug” he received from Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Parliament on Friday, tying the gesture to the absence of reason for the no-confidence motion brought against his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
“We asked the reason for their no-confidence motion, but when they failed to give it, they ended up giving an unwanted hug,” Modi said at a farmers’ rally in Shahjahanpur, referring to the embrace he received during the debate on the no-trust motion in Parliament.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA won the vote, initiated by estranged BJP ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and backed by most opposition parties, with a nearly three-fourths majority after an intense debate. Gandhi led the opposition’s charge in the debate with a blistering attack on the Modi government, and after ending his speech, walked up to Modi and hugged him.
Modi used the Hindi phrase ‘gale pad gaye’ to describe Gandhi’s gesture. The phrase loosely translates into English as thrusting an unwanted liability on someone. Before Modi, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, UP minis-
› We asked the reason for their noconfidence motion, but when they failed to give it, they ended up giving an unwanted hug
› NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister Point of yesterday’s debate in Parliament… PM uses Hate, Fear and Anger in hearts of some of our people to build his narrative. We are going to prove Love & Compassion is only way to build a nation RAHUL GANDHI, Congress president
ter Suresh Khanna and UP BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey, too, used the same ‘gale pad gaye’ phrase to mock the Congress chief. Adityanath described Gandhi as ‘pappu’. Modi said the coming together of several parties against the BJP will be an opportunity, as they were running after the prime minister’s chair, ignoring the poor, youngsters and farmers.
He used a Hindi expression that translates to ‘lotus’ blooming in marshy land.“If one dal (party) is added to another dal, then it becomes dal-dal (marshy land) which is favourable for ‘kamal’ to blossom,” he said. Lotus is the election symbol of the BJP.
He accused the previous governments of not having the will to help farmers He told the crowd, mostly comprising farmers from nine districts adjoining Shahjahanpur, UP’s biggest grain market, about various farm and farmer-centric initiatives taken by his government at the centre and the Yogi Adityanath government in Lucknow.In his nearly 45-minute address, Modi spoke about increasing the minimum support price of various crops, the revival of fertiliser factories, his government’s decision to promote neem coated urea to prevent black marketing, revival of various irrigation and drip irrigation schemes, crop loan waiver and the decision to clear dues of sugarcane farmers. The sugarcane dues were considered a big factor in BJP’s embarrassing loss in the by-polls to the Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur assembly seat in western UP in May. Since then, the Modi government has announced a huge ₹8,000 crore package for sugarcane farmers and increased the minimum support price for sugarcane too.
“We are clearing up the mess of the previous governments. The dues of cane farmers are being cleared. Our decision to increase the MSP of 14 crops is unprecedented. Those who are shedding crocodile tears for farmers too could have done it but they didn’t do it,” he said. He also said that for the first time the government has decided to allow mills to produce ethanol from molasses and sugarcane juice from December 1.
After reaching out to voters in Azamgarh, Mirzapur and Varanasi last week, Modi addressed the rally in Shahjahanpur, a prominent cane growing district in Uttar Pradesh which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha. This was his third visit to the state in less than a month.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Modi sought to connect with ‘garib, peedit, shoshit aur vanchit’ (the poor, the troubled, the exploited and the deprived) who had voted for his party in huge numbers in the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 UP polls. Modi promised power for all by 2019.