PM used Gurdaspur rally to criticise Cong, instead of announcing schemes for farmers: Jakhar

Congress leader Sunil Jakhar said Thursday Prime Minister Narendra Modi had used his rally in Gurdaspur to criticise the party instead of announcing new schemes for Punjab's farmers.

During the Gurdaspur rally, Modi announced "nothing" for the state's people, particularly farmers. He used the platform to express his "mounting frustration" by targeting the Congress, he said.

Modi's entire speech was nothing but "old wine in new bottle" as there was no mention of schemes for development of industries or policies to safeguard the interests of farmers, the Punjab Congress president claimed.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi disappointed the people of the state by using his rally to give another theatrical performance to bash the Congress instead of announcing any package for the border state," Jakhar said.

Though Modi is on a spree for the last few months to eulogise his government for enhancing the minimum support price (MSP), the reality is totally opposite, he alleged.

The Lok Sabha MP from Gurdaspur claimed that out the 24 crops on which there had been a "so called" hike in MSP, 20 crops were being sold at a price much less than the MSP.

Jakhar claimed that Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had waived farmers' debt worth Rs 3,400 crore whereas the Centre had done nothing on its part to bail out farmers across the country from debt burden.

He asked Modi to list the contributions of his government or those of the previous SAD-BJP government in the state for Punjab and its farmers.

Jakhar said it was a paradoxical situation that Modi who had levied Goods and Services Tax on langar was Thursday patting himself for waiving it.