Rahul slams Centre over trawling ban

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government at the Centre would face dire “consequences” if it continued its attempts to marginalise the poor.

He was speaking at a gathering of fishermen at Chavakkad in Thrissur district.
Rahul, in an apparent reference to the Centre’s proposal to extend the annual monsoon ban on mechanised and motorised fishing by two weeks, said fishermen were being denied access to the sea in the manner in which natural resources were being taken away from tribes.

Asserting that the Congress party was not “afraid” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “his five or six friends in suits”, Rahul said the NDA government believed that farmers, fishermen and tribals were weak and could be pushed aside. “The government is not picking fights with the farmers or tribals… it is picking a fight with the soul of the country. Nobody has ever won such a fight,” he said.