Modi government is for rich, ignores farmers: Rahul Gandhi

He was speaking at a debate over the government's land bill ordinance in the Lok Sabha

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused the BJP-led NDA government of being the "government of corporates" and the one that has completely "neglected farmers and labourers of the country".

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committing a "mistake by thinking that industrialists and corporates were the real power" in India.

Participating in a debate over the government's land bill ordinance in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi said he wondered how a person like Modi could make that political mistake of "ignoring 60 percent farmers and labourers" of the country.

"He knows the calculation well, I wonder how can he make a mistake of annoying them," Gandhi said amid cheers from his party men.

"Yours is a government of rich, government of suited-booted people, who do not understand that the real power of the country lies with its farmers and labourers, and not with the coporates," he said.

Gandhi also accused the central government of weakening the farmers so that their lands could be taken and given to the industrialists and corporates.

Reading out the past records of Minimum Selling Price (MSP) given by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments at different point of time, he said ever since the NDA government took over only meagre increments were made in the MSP of farmers' produce.

Gandhi also accused the Modi government of not presenting right picture before the country on important issues.

Talking about the government's assessment of recent damage to wheat and other crops in the country, the Congress vice president said the prime minister, the agriculture ministry and the Bharatiya Janata Party gave different figures of the affected crops.

"I want to suggest the prime minister to go and see for himself what damage has been done to crops," he said.