Rahul, Scindia do not know anything about farmers: BJP leader

A BJP parliamentarian on Wednesday said Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia did not know anything about farmers and talked about them only after "reading from books".

Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on the drought situation in several parts of the country, parliamentarian Virendra Singh challenged the Congress leaders on their knowledge about farmers in the country.

"They do not know anything about 'kisan'. Whatever knowledge they have about them is taken from books," he said, adding that both actually were not connected with reality and instead dub the BJP government a "suit-boot ki sarkar" (a government of the affluent).

The Congress was also not in the habit of seeing a commoner like Narendra Modi on the prime minister's chair, the BJP leader said.

"Anybody can now become a prime minister with public mandate. The seat is no longer reserved for a select few," he said.

"They can't see any commoner on that seat. They think it's reserved for privileged people like them alone," Singh said, accusing Scindia of getting himself addressed as a 'Maharaja' even though the the system of royal dynasties was abolished long ago.

"If somebody calls on him (Scindia), he would be told the Maharaja is sleeping," Singh said.

The atmosphere was charged up as the BJP leader delivered his speech. As he paused at 6.00 p.m. to give time to the chair to ask members whether they would like extension of debate time, Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai, sensing more trouble in the house, adjourned it for the day.

The Congress members resorted to vociferous protests throughout the BJP leader's speech.