NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha witnessed uproarious scenes on Thursday evening as Congress MP Rahul Gandhi sought to respond to PM Narendra Modi’s jibe a day earlier that the opposition was commenting on the colour of the three farm laws but not their “content and intent”, and said the laws were only intended to help the government’s “corporate friends”.
In a 15-minute address amid strident protests by the treasury benches that he should speak on the budget, Rahul alleged the Modi government was following the decades-old “Hum Do, Humare Do” slogan popularised during the national family planning programme to promote “two corporate friends” who were steadily taking control of India’s Rs 40 lakh crore agriculture business and rendering farmers, small traders and labourers jobless.
The farm laws had been discussed as part of the motion of thanks to the President’s address, and BJP members insisted he speak on the budget. While he did not name the corporate houses, Rahul said everyone knew the “four people running the country”, and added that the intent of the three farm laws was to ensure that all purchase and storage of foodgrains in the country is monopolised by two corporate entities.
Farmers, small traders and labourers would be robbed of their rights to move court when denied their due, Rahul said. He also alleged the new farm laws would end the ‘mandi’ system, destroy India’s food security, hurt the rural economy and stymie India’s ability to produce jobs. “The intent of these three laws is to allow industrialists to buy unlimited quantities of foodgrains and hoard them as much as they want. The PM said he has given options. Yes, he has given three options — hunger, unemployment, suicide. These are the three options he has given,” Rahul said.
Despite interventions by parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi to speak on the budget, Rahul said he would only talk on the farmers’ issue since the opposition’s request for a separate, structured debate on farmers’ issues was denied by the government.
The former Congress chief added that the farmer-led ‘andolan’ would show the way to the rest of the country to rise against the “Hum Do Humare Do” culture and with farmers not moving back an inch, the government would be forced to repeal the laws.
He also prompted Congress, TMC and DMK MPs to observe two minutes of silence to mourn the death of 200 farmers during the ongoing protests, claiming he was paying respect when the government failed in its duty to do so. Speaker Om Birla, however, was not impressed and said running the House was his responsibility and such conduct by a senior member was “inappropriate”.
Intervening on behalf of the government, junior finance minister Anurag Thakur claimed Rahul spoke on farm laws because he was unprepared to speak on the budget. He said Rahul spent little time in the House and in India, adding that it was the Congress family that had practised the ‘Hum Do, Humare Do’ slogan in spirit, allowing one family to corral all benefits during Congress rule. Thakur also said though Rahul claimed to be speaking for the poor, it was PM Modi who had brought tangible development to the lives of the country’s poor.