Farmers Movement Archive

Day after Rahul’s rally, opposition parties attack Congress

LUDHIANA: A day after Congress president Rahul Gandhi launched ‘Kheti Bachao Yatra’ campaign and addressed two rallies in Chakar and Jattpura villages of Ludhiana, he, along with the Congress, has come on the radar of the opposition. Whether its arch rival BJP, SAD or Lok Insaaf Party (LIP), all have launched a scathing attack against the Congress. Terming this as a publicity stunt, LIP MLA Simarjit Singh Bains questioned the use of special seats atop a tractor on which Rahul and other Congress leaders conducted the rally. Speaking to TOI, Bains said, “The ‘Kheti Bachao Yatra’ is just a drama by Rahul and his colleagues in Punjab only to project themselves as a crusader of farmers. If he was so serious about the problems of the farmers, why did he not hit the streets on foot or bicycle and instead acted like a VVIP and used a tractor with a specially fitted seats for his comfort. It was only the LIP which had started a real campaign for making farmers aware about these black anti-farming laws and we covered entire Punjab on bicycles while stopping at hundreds of villages to tell the truth about these laws.” Bains added that, “Rahul should explain how many villages he visited on Sunday and how many locals and farmers he interacted with and inquired about their agony and pain. The bitter reality is that the villagers were not even allowed to come anywhere near the route of his rally. So, it’s quite evident that he is least bothered about the problems of anyone and is only concerned with raking up issues which bring him instant publicity.” Lashing out against Rahul, SAD district president Ranjit Singh Dhillon said, “The public rallies and tractor ride of Rahul Gandhi has totally proved to be a flop show as only a handful of people turned up in his rally. At majority of the places only Congress workers had gathered as there was no public support to this campaign of Rahul. Punjabis know that whether it’s Gandhis or Congress, both have always backstabbed them. The response of the public is giving sleepless nights to the Congress leaders, who tried to copy SAD’s Kisan March in which sea of common people, farmers and people from different walks of life turned up in huge numbers.” Firing a salvo against Congress, district president of BJP Pushpinder Singhal said, “Rahul Gandhi is the most idle politician in the entire country, that is why he reaches all spots where from he thinks he can grab limelight and media attention. If he was so serious about the farmers’ issues, then he should have read the farm bills and perhaps educated himself about these that these are not anti-farmer rather than misguiding them. This ‘Kheti Bachao Yatra’ of Rahul is a perfect example of hypocrisy of the Congress. On one side, FIRs were registered on the pretext of risk of Covid against opposition parties like the BJP even when we organised a small silent protest following social distancing norms. But now the same Congress is conducting rallies and public gatherings. These are double standards by chief minister Amarinder Singh, who on one side projects that he is very determined about combating coronavirus in Punjab, but on the other hand he himself is leading crowds to the rallies of Rahul and exposing them to the risk of coronavirus.” Meanwhile, Congress MLA Kuldeep Singh Vaid said, “Our ‘Kheti Bachao Yatra’ is a big success already and this fuss being created by the opposition on the issue is evident of the fact that they have been stunned by the feedback they got from their sources about the yatra. People are very curious to see and hear our leader Rahul Gandhi, who is the youth icon of Indi. For this reason only they are turning out in large numbers in all his programmes.”

The Times of India

2020-10-06

Ludhiana