Bharatiya Janata Party president J.P. Nadda on Sunday accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of playing politics over the farmers’ protest, citing a 2015 speech by Mr. Gandhi in the Lok Sabha where he spoke about the issue of middlemen in agriculture.
Mr. Nadda shared a clip of Mr. Gandhi’s speech via a tweet and commented that the Congress leader was now opposing what he had earlier advocated for.
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The Congress has come out in support of the ongoing protests by farmers against the recently-passed agriculture reform Bills. Mr. Nadda said Mr. Gandhi was not concerned with the interest of the country and the farmers, but was only playing politics.
He added that the hypocrisy would not work as the people of the country and farmers had understood the dual nature.
In the clip shared by Mr. Nadda, Mr. Gandhi was speaking as the MP from Amethi. He recounted a conversation with a potato farmer who asked him how it was possible that they sold potatoes for Rs.2/kg, but their children bough a packet of potato chips for Rs.10. Mr. Gandhi then said the farmer’s explanation for this was the distance between the farms and the factories, leading to middlemen taking a cut.
