Smriti Irani, Harsimrat Kaur Badal take on Rahul Gandhi over Amethi food park

Congress leader protecting interests of a business group, not farmers, alleges HRD minister

Realising that Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has managed to capture the media space with his aggressive stance on various people-centric issues, including the land acquisition Bill, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has decided not to cede further space to the leader.

So, when Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani was taking on Rahul Gandhi at his home turf of Amethi over the food park issue, Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal attacked the Congress vice-president in the Lok Sabha on the same issue. 

Irani said Gandhi was more interested in protecting the interests of a business house, the promoter of the food park project, and was ignoring the plight of farmers.

“When 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. If you look at the documents of district officials, you will understand that from 2010 to 2014, the land was not provided by Congress. Whatever help had to be given for gas was not given for long,” she said to a question on the food park.

The food park issue was recently raised in the Lok Sabha by Gandhi, who attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of practising “politics of revenge” by cancelling the food processing plant.

Irani said Gandhi has been “missing” from his constituency and that the dreams shown by three generations of Congress can only be fulfilled by the Modi government.

In the Lok Sabha, the NDA members accused Rahul Gandhi of “playing politics of deception” and “misleading” the House over the food park project, evoking strong protests from Congress members.

“The project was cancelled on July 11, 2014.... Were you sleeping for 10 months? It is you who wants to resort to politics of revenge,” Badal said, triggering loud cheers from the treasury benches and protests from Congress members who stormed the well of the House. 

The issue of Gandhi's allegation was on Friday raised by BJP member Kirit Somaiah, who said he had given a notice for a privilege motion against the Congress vice-president for allegedly misleading the House on the food park issue.