BJP President JP Nadda, taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi, shared an old
video of his speech in Lok Sabha on Twitter, PTI reported. In the video, he is upholding the
need to get rid of middlemen for the farmers’ benefit and sell their produce
directly to the industry to get maximum gain.
Nadda accused the Congress leader of hypocrisy as he stood with the
farmers in the ongoing protests.
“What is this magic happening Rahul ji. You are opposing now what
you had advocated earlier,” he said.
“You have nothing to do with the country’s or farmers’ interests. You
have to play politics only. But this is your bad luck that your hypocrisy will
not work. People of the country and farmers have recognised your double
standards,” Nadda tweeted in Hindi along with the video clip.
The Congress has supported the farmers’ protests against the three farm
laws which allow farmers to sell their produce directly to private players.
Agitating farmers have argued that these laws are aimed at weakening the
existing government’s support for the farm sector, a charge denied by the Centre.
Also Read | ‘Even Mohan Bhagwat will be called terrorist…’: Rahul Gandhi’s attack on govt over farm laws
In his speech, Gandhi is heard sharing an anecdote where a farmer during
his trip to Uttar Pradesh, asked him the logic behind a packet of potato chips,
made from one potat,o costing Rs 10, while farmers sell it for Rs 2 per kg.
When he asked what they thought was the reason for this, the farmer said
that middlemen earn a cut when they sell the produce in factories, which are
located far from their reach. If there were no middlemen, farmers would get all
the benefit.
That was the idea behind a food park, and this is in a way what farmers
and labourers of Amethi and 10-12 districts of Uttar Pradesh have been fighting
for, Gandhi said in the clip.
Gandhi had accused the Modi government during its first term of shelving
the food park project in Amethi.
The government had denied the charge and said the park never had land.