Rahul, Irani spar over Amethi food park
WAR OF WORDS Cong VP accuses PM of practising ‘politics of revenge’ by scrapping proposed park, Smriti says Rahul did not do anything to make the project viable
NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, accusing him of practising “politics of revenge” and not the “politics of change” that he promised.
Gandhi criticised Modi over the Centre scrapping a proposed food park project in the Congress leader’s constituency which he said would have benefitted thousands of farmers and labourers.
Home minister Rajnath Singh, who responded to the charge in the Lok Sabha, denied the accusation, but promised to get back to the Amethi MP.
Hours later, however, the BJP fielded HRD minister Smriti Irani — who had taken on Gandhi in the Lok Sabha election — to rebut the Congress lawmaker’s charges, and food processing industries minister Harsimrat Badal wrote a letter to Singh, criticising the opposition leader.
Badal said the petroleum ministry denied the supply of gas at a concessional rate during UPA rule in 2013 which made the project infeasible for the promoter.
“If Shri Rahul Gandhi was as serious about this Mega Food Park (during the UPA regime to get concessional gas) as he is today, this Mega Food Park would have been completed by now,” Badal said in a letter, reporting the status of the food park to the home minister later in the evening.
Irani also took potshots at Gandhi. “Eight extensions were sought for the project as it was not considered viable. But did the MP take even eight steps to make the project a reality,” she said without naming him.
The three-time Amethi MP launched his attack on Modi in Parliament by recalling the Prime Minister’s “52-minute speech in Amethi” while campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls.
“I was impressed when he said he would deliver politics and policies guided by badlaav, not badlaa (change, not vendetta),” Gandhi said, stressing that Modi had gone back on his word.