Smriti targets Congress over protest against farm laws, refers to Vadra's land grab case

On Friday, Union Minister Smriti Irani campaigned in Gujarat for the upcoming by-polls and mounted a fierce attack on the Congress party for their opposition to the recently passed farm laws, abrogation of Article 370. 

Bypolls on the eight Assembly seats in Gujarat - Abdasa, Limdi, Morbi, Dhari, Gadhada (ST), Karjan, Dangs (ST) and Kaprada (ST) - will be held on November 3. Smriti Irani slammed former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, whom she had defeated in Gandhi bastion Amethi in the Lok Sabha elections, and asked if he is trying to help the middlemen. Without taking names, Smriti Irani said that the party that is run by a khandan (family) do not have the right to call others a traitor. 

Referring to the land grab case of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's husband Robert Vadra, Irani said, "My question is the that how a person (Rahul Gandhi) who's brother-in-law (Robert Vadra) has taken away the land of farmers will help the farmers. The politics of the Congress party for years have been about looting country's coffers or looting the farmers of India. Therefore you need to chuck them out by voting for BJP," Irani appealed in a Gujarat poll rally. 

WATCH here: 

Rahul Gandhi had held protest marches in Punjab against the farm laws and Punjab Assembly has now passed bills to negate the Centre's farm laws. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has also announced that his state would follow suit. 

READ | Rahul Gandhi Taking Out Yatra In Support Of Middlemen Not Farmers: Smriti Irani

By-polls in Gujarat

The by-polls in the eight seats of Gujarat assembly is being held as eight Congress MLAs had resigned as legislators in the run-up to the Rajya Sabha elections earlier this year. Now, five of them have joined the BJP and have been given tickets to contest the by-polls. Slamming one of them (Brajesh Merja), Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi had a few days ago said that stated he had done 'gaddari'. Irani fired back at the comment and said that a party who which supports bringing back of Article 370 of the Constitution, cannot level allegations like 'gaddari' (cheating). 

“I want to ask Congress to first decide as to how many leaders it has. Is it led by an individual or by a khandan family)? If it is a khandan, in politics, such a party would not be able to understand hardships faced by the poor,” Irani added.

READ | Union Min Smriti Irani dismayed at Kamal Nath's 'item' jibe, questions silence of Gandhis

BJP leader and Union minister Smriti Irani

Earlier, when Rahul Gandhi held protest marches against the three farm laws, Irani had said that he was taking out his yatras not for farmers but in support of "middlemen who looted the country". Hitting out at the Gandhi scion for his remarks that if his party is voted to power it would abolish the farm laws, Irani said, "I think Rahul Gandhi lives in a dream world where he thinks he is a king."

When Gandhi opposes the farm laws, Irani asked, does he also oppose the proposition that farmer will be paid within three days of selling their produce, that they are free to sell them anywhere in the country and that their land cannot be used in the recovery process in any case. “His party’s and especially his family's politics was always dependent on the middlemen who looted the coffers of the country," she alleged.

READ | Smriti Irani Shares Rujuta Diwekar's Video About 'winter Superfoods' To Boost Immunity

What are the amended bills? 

The Farmers Produce Trade & Commerce Promotion & Facilitation (Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020 ensures that wheat or paddy cannot be purchased except for a price equal to or greater than the Minimum Support Price. Anyone buying below the MSP shall be imprisoned for three years. The second bill- The Essential Commodities (Special Provision & Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020 seeks to protect consumers from hoarding and black marketing of agriculture produce.

On the other hand, The Farmers Agreement on Price Assurance & Farm Services(Punjab Amendment) Bill, 2020 provides that no sale or purchase of wheat and paddy under a farming agreement shall take place below the MSP. Besides this, another bill was cleared to ensure that the land of farmers up to 2.5 acres cannot be attached in any recovery proceedings. Subsequently, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh along with Congress, SAD and AAP MLAs met Governor VPS Badnore, requesting him to give assent to the bills. 

READ | Cong 'restless' as farmers got freedom to sell crop anywhere in country: Smriti Irani