Rahul unaware of agri-life, misfit to be PM: Badal

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said Rahul Gandhi would be a "complete misfit" as Prime Minister because he was unaware of the basics of agriculture and village life of the majority of the population of the country.

Calling the Congress vice-president "inexperienced and politically naive", Badal said he was ignorant about the basic topography of the nation

Addressing a gathering at a Sangat Darshan programme in Bathinda, Badal said a country where nearly 60 per cent of population resides in the villages cannot be run by a person who was not acquainted to the problems faced by them.

Badal, who heads the Akali-BJP alliance in Punjab, backed the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, saying the country was in need of "a decisive leadership", and Modi was the only "ray of hope" for the people of the country.

Attacking Congress for its step-motherly treatment to the state, Badal said instead of rewarding Punjabis for their contribution in making the country self-reliant in food production, Congress governments had adopted a discriminatory posture toward them.

Badal rued that farmers of the state were reeling under a whopping debt of Rs 32,000 crore.

Slamming the Centre, he said Punjabis could never forget how Congress had denied the state its capital, a legitimate share in river waters, Punjabi-speaking areas in neighbouring states besides irrelevantly meddling in its social, political, economic and even religious affairs.

He also said that mass exodus of industry was taking place due to denial of economic package to Punjab on the lines of those given to neighbouring Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.