Congress responsible for farmers' plight: Shah

BJP president Amit Shah today 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.

Shah also dared Congress leaders to point finger on Modi government on the issue of corruption.

"When Yuvraj's (Rahul) government (UPA) was in power, Congress pocketed Rs 12 lakh crore through corruption. I can count at least 25 of their scandals, such as 2G, coal and CWG. Now, I dare Congress to pinpoint a single incident of corruption in Modi's tenure of one year," he said.

Listing achievements of Modi government to prove his point, Shah told party workers that the NDA government has not done a single wrong thing for which party workers has to hide their face from public.

"On May 26, Modi government will complete one year. In this one year, our government has fulfilled all the promises which were given ahead of elections, be it uprooting corruption, bringing transparency, bringing down inflation, creating employment and many more," he claimed.

He also assured that Modi government will bring the GDP growth to 10 per cent in 2019. "When the Modi government came to power, the GDP rate was around 4.4 per cent. Now, it has touched 5.7 per cent. And, I am confident that it will touch 10 per cent when this government will finish it's tenure in 2019," he said.

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandi Patel, BJP general secretary Purushottam Rupala, Gujarat BJP in-charge Dinesh Sharma and national joint secretary V Satish were among others present.