Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday targetted Narendra Modi government's ambitious palm oil mission in the Northeast calling it a scheme to destroy Manipur's future in order to help Baba Ramdev and a few other businessmen only.
Addressing a rally at Hapta Kangjeibung in Imphal, as part of his campaign for Assembly elections to be held on February 28 and March 4, Gandhi said BJP wants to impose one idea and one ideology on the people of Manipur instead of respecting the diverse culture, language and way of living of the state's people.
"Narendra Modi wants to destroy your beautiful state by carrying out palm oil plantation. I want to ask whom such plantation is going to help? Is it going to help the people of Manipur or companies like Patanjali and two-three really large businessmen. This is similar to how they helped these corporate groups through 'notebandi' (demonitisation), wrong GST and three farm laws," Gandhi said.
Gandhi said, Congress, on the other hand, wants to support the farmers in Manipur and make the state self-sufficient in rice production, provide a minimum support price for horticulture products and improve irrigation in the state.
The Centre in October last year allocated Rs 11,040 crore for an oil palm mission in the Northeast and Andaman. BJP is projecting the mission as a game-changing scheme to create jobs and enhance farmers' income in the Northeast, including in Manipur.
Alleging that BJP wants to impose what they think is superior, Rahul said Congress respects the diverse culture, language and way of living of the people of different states.
"For us Uttar Pradesh and Manipur are the same. We respect the language and culture of UP and Manipur. But when BJP and RSS come to Manipur, they come with a sense of superiority. We come to Manipur with a sense of humility. We respect your culture and want to support it. We believe in the Constitution that says India is a union of states. But BJP always wants to impose one ideology on all states," Rahul said.
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