New Delhi, Feb 9, 2021 –
The Congress on Monday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in which he said that MSP will continue and so will the monthly ration scheme for 80 crore people, had “no substance” and was “misleading”.
Talking to media persons outside Parliament, Congress’ Rajya Sabha member Mallikarjun Kharge said they hoped the Prime Minister would say something on three farm laws over which the farmers are protesting for the last 75 days.
He said that the Congress expected that the Prime Minister, looking at the agitation of the farmers, will repeal the farm laws and will then speak to the stakeholders to bring fresh laws in Parliament. “But he did not discuss anything like that,” he said.
Hitting out at the Prime Minister, Kharge said: “He (Modi) said that they are protesting without knowing what is there in the three farm laws. Can it happen like this? Farmers who till their lands and all the opposition parties know everything about the three farm laws.”
He said that the Congress has given a pamphlet to the government on the farmers’ issue.
“But the Prime Minister ignored all the facts. He rejected concerns of farmers, graduates and scientists saying nobody knows anything. He is misleading the people by saying that nobody knows what is there in the three farm laws,” he said.
“Are we all fools? And are all the farmers sitting on protest fools?”
He described the Prime Minister’s reply in the Rajya Sabha as a political speech.
On the Covid-19 pandemic, Kharge said: “On February, I asked clearly in Parliament whether it is a fact that Covid related deaths per million in India are much higher than other south Asian countries. And the government’s reply to that was that for the questions ‘A to C’, Yes.”
“We don’t talk without substance, it is their written reply,” he said.
Congress MP Deepender Hooda said: “This Government is not able to understand the depth of these protests. Ignoring the difference in culture, language, religion, these farmers have reached the doorstep of the Centre but it is really unfortunate that the government has neglected their struggle.”
Hooda said that “we are very much disappointed” with the Prime Minister’s speech.
Congress leader Nasser Hussain said: “We could have boycotted his address but we were hoping that maybe today the Prime Minister will repeal the three farm laws. The same Prime Minister, because of whom the entire country is having issues like falling GDP growth, clashes at Galwan Valley, protesting farmers, is asking the opposition to be a part of the solution rather than being part of the problem.”
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also slammed the Prime Minister’s remarks. “In Parliament today, Prime Minister Modi said that FDI is also ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’. This from someone whose governance has been based solely on FDI – Fear, Deception, Intimidation.”
Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill in a tweet said, “Prime Minister says ‘MSP tha, hai or rahega’ – then why don’t give the same in written in the form of a law Mr Prime Minister? Also write that the private companies cannot buy the farmers produce below the MSP. Farmers cannot trust Prime Minister’s speech because they know difference between law and lofty speeches.” (Agency)
