Congress today came down hard on moves suggesting lifting the 55-year-old ban on the deadly Khesari dal telling the Narendra Modi dispensation that it was playing with health of crores of unsuspecting Indians.
"By introducing Keshari Dal, the government is playing with health of crores of unsuspecting Indians, rather than working on its promise of ushering in a Protein Revolution", party spokesman RPN Singh told reporters.
Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, he said, when Modiji spoke of bringing about a Yellow Revolution, Protein and Dalhan Kranti, he was thinking about paralysing the lower limbs of people of India.
Khesari dal was banned in 1961 for what scientists and medical experts had then said could cause lathyrism a condition which could lead to paralysis of the lower body and even cause numbness in the limbs and spine.
"Have all concerns associated with the Khesari Dal being addressed or is that a consultation with and assurance by Nitin Gadkari, as reported in the media, has led the government to experiment and play with the health of people of thjis country?" he asked.
Singh also utilised the occasion to target the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government over the plight of sugarcane growers in the state.
He said the decision of the UP Government not to raise the prices of sugarcane for the third year in a row has come as a bolt from the blue for the hapless cane grower. He said that sugar mills owe more than Rs 3,000 crore arrears to cane growers.
He latched on to a tweet made by Modi just two months before becoming the Prime Minister to target him over his "big promises" to the farmer during the poll campaign.
"UP is blessed with many rivers but farmers are troubled. Lives of sugarcane farmers, who themselves sweeten lives of other, are bitter. Why?", Modi had asked in a tweet in March 2014.
