New Delhi : As it flexed its organisational muscle to celebrate its first victory against the Modi government on the withdrawal of the Land Acquisition bill, Congress president Sonia Gandhi cautioned the workers that the fight is not over.
Addressing a large rally of farmers at the capital’s historic Ram Lila Maidan, she said that at first Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not understand the “seriousness of the protest by the Congress Party”. However, she said: “When he saw the power of protest he had to take a step back, but the battle (over the land bill), has now shifted to other states.”
Sonia said that this struggle would now have to take places in the vidhan sabhas and state capitals.
The Congress president broadened the ambit of her criticism against Modi and observed that the PM has gone back on his campaign promises and has “no time” to meet farmers but is interested only for his “few industrialist friends”. In another jibe, she said:“Yes, he has also the interest, time and money for foreign trips.”
Rebutting the Modi’s charge that the Congress is anti-development, the Congress president said: “A party, which fought to get India’s freedom from the Britishers and participated in the growth story of the nation for 60 years cannot be anti-development.
However, she added said that whenever the government does not listen to the problems of the farmers and the poor, Congress will stand in its way. “The Congress will act as an obstacle in their way whenever they stop giving an ear to peoples’ problems, whenever farmers are not given Minimum Support Price, whenever drought and flood affected farmers are left at the mercy of God and the price of edible items is not brought down,” she added.
The show of strength organised as a Kisan Samman rally was primarily aimed at celebrating the party’s success in a drive that was largely focussed on its vice-president Rahul Gandhi. In his address, the young Gandhi made frequent references to the election meeting he had held on Saturday in Bihar.
He used his by now familiar description of the Modi government as ‘suit-boot ki Sarkar” and derided Modi for his Make in India programme. He said:” It is not Make in India, it is Take in (From) India, there’s no place for labourers and farmers in his Make in India. Only his (PM Modi’s) selected friends will benefit from it.
With thousands of farmers – their turbans resembling like a sea of pink — the party sought to underscore what they call the pro-corporate image of the government and stressed that the continuing struggle is not only for the land but honour of farmers, who treat land as a mother.
“We know what Modiji is. He does not say what he thinks.
That is why on one hand he said he will not change the Congress law and on the other asked his Chief Ministers to bring them (the changes).”
