Amethi/Nagpur: “If we talk of small farmers and labourers, I will give zero out of 10 to Modi’s government ,” Rahul Gandhi said at Haidergarh in Barabanki district en route to Amethi when asked how he would rate its performance during its first year in office. Rahul is on a three-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency of Amethi.
“But if some industrialists and corporate houses are concerned, I will give 10 out of 10,” he added.
“The move of BJP-led government has affected farmers and labourers of Amethi and 10 neighbouring districts. The Centre wanted to take revenge from me, but the move has affected farmers. Had the food park been set up, it would have changed the fate of farmers. By cancelling it, the Modi government has dealt a blow to farmers. He has snatched it from them and not from me. We will pressure the government to get it back,”
His attack on the Modi government comes in the wake of Union Minister Smriti Irani’s tour of the Congress pocket borough — where she had unsuccessfully contested against Gandhi in the last Lok Sabha election — and her charge that he cared more for a business house than for the farmers of Amethi.
Amidst a raging row over the cancellation of the mega food park project, Irani had last week said, “When the Congress VP, Rahul Gandhi spoke for the first time in Amethi, he was talking for a business house. He did not speak for the farmers of Amethi.”
The ruling party of UP, the SP meanwhile is calling it all a political drama by both Congress and BJP.
We are looking after our people well. No food park is going to change their destiny, commented one SP leader.
