Amit Shah attacks Rahul, says Cong responsible for farmers' plight

Gandhinagar, May 9: BJP president Amit Shah on Friday hit out at Congress, saying farmers in the country would not have been in miserable condition, had Congress cared for them during its nearly six decades of rule.

Without naming Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who has been carrying out padyatras in different parts of the country on farmers' issues, Shah said, "A Congress leader is now doing padyatras. But, no matter what Congress does, be it padyatra or bus-yatra, people know that the Narendra Modi government is working for their betterment."

On April 30, Rahul had undertaken a 'kisan padyatra' in Amravati district in Maharashtra to interact with the kin of farmers, who had committed suicide due to agrarian crisis. The Congress leader is scheduled to carry out a similar padyatra in Telangana next week.

Shah, who was addressing partymen here at the launch of the Maha Sampark Abhiyan in Gujarat, criticised the opposition for "false propaganda" against the Modi government.

"Nowadays, some people are engaged in spreading false propaganda against Modi government. But figures never lie figures say that India is surging ahead under Modi's leadership," he said.

"Some people are talking about farmers and Land Acquisition bill. I want to tell you very clearly that this government will not give even an inch of land to corporates. Don't believe in the lies being spread," he said.

"They have no right to talk about farmers. Out of all the land acquired from farmers till date, 96 per cent of land was acquired in their 60-year rule. Had Congress cared for farmers, they would not be living in such sorry state today," he alleged.

As per the rules framed during the Congress rule, a farmer hit by unseasonal rains, would get compensation only if his losses are more than 50 per cent. But our PM changed this criteria to 33 per cent to bring more farmers under the scheme, Shah said.

"We have even increased the amount of compensation 1.5 times. When farmers were suffering, Congress only did drama, while Modi stood with farmers as their brother and eased their pain," he said.

PTI