Defeatist Congress pretending to be farmers' friend: Rajnath

Launching an attack on the Congress at BJPs National Convention, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said the Congress was "pretending" to be farmers friend though it never cared for them when in power, and added that the opposition was already staring at defeat in next Lok Sabha polls.

He underlined that India's growth story could not be written by bypassing the country's villages.

"The Congress party is cutting a 'swang' (pretence) of being the champion of the farmers, but it did not look at the Swaminathan Commission report for 10 years of UPA. It was Narendra Modi government that implemented the Commission's recommendation of giving the minimum support price (MSP) to the farmers," he said.

"The opposition knows that if the farmers of this country stand up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then nobody can save their boat. Today the public is with Modi. In any case they (opposition) have almost conceded that their boat is going to sink in the coming elections," he added.

He said a perturbed opposition had launched a campaign of false allegations to blemish the image of Prime Minister Modi.

"But our Prime Minister's life is like an open book. Anybody can read it," he said.

He said that after Lal Bahadur Shastri and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Modi was the only Prime Minister who had taken the agriculture and farmers' issues with seriousness and sensitivity.

He said the Modi government had allocated Rs 2.11 lakh crore to agriculture during its tenure which was "unprecedented".

He also spoke of various schemes like Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, neem-coated urea, MSP and farm loans.

He claimed in Karnataka, where the Congress-Janata Dal Secular (JD-S) alliance is running the government, farmers were being "arrested" for not repaying their loans.

--IANS

mak/prs