Trying to end the political stalemate over his government’s Land Acquisition Bill, which has run into the Opposition wall, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said he was open to making changes in the proposed law if it had anything against farmers. Also, seeking to allay doubts over his government’s stance on communalism, he said his government’s only religion was “India first”, and its only religious book was the Indian Constitution.
In the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister reached out to the Opposition, which has been protesting against the land Bill calling it anti-farmer, saying, “Kripa karke isko rajneeti ke tarazu mein mat toliye (Please do not weigh this in the scales of politics). I am ready to bring in changes if there is anything against the farmers in it… even if there is a single thing against the farmers in this, I am ready to correct it.”
“Humein itna ahankar nahin hona chahiye ki humne jo kiya us se achha ho nahin sakta (We should not be so arrogant as to think we did cannot be bettered),” Modi said in his 70-minute address, replying to the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in the Lok Sabha.
“We respect what you did. Now it is time to correct whatever shortcoming are there. Please do not make it a prestige issue,” appealed Modi, even as he reminded the Congress minutes earlier that the BJP had supported it on the Land Acquisition Act despite knowing that the Congress would attempt to take political mileage out of it.
Displaying glimpses of the combative style he had in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, Modi took a potshot at the Congress’s flagship MNREGA scheme, saying, “My political sense tells me never to scrap MNREGA. Because MNREGA is a living memorial to your failures. Aur main gaaje-baaje ke saath iska dhol peet-ta rahoonga. MNREGA rahega, aan-baan-shaan se rahega aur gaaje-baaje ke saath duniya mein bataya jayega.” As stunned Congress members watched, Modi mocked the party, saying that under this scheme, it had to send people to dig pits 60 years after independence.
He piled on the sarcasm by adding that his government would add whatever is necessary to the scheme and would not subtract anything from it. “Don’t worry…whatever has to be added, will be added. Whatever strength has to be given…we’ll give it. Because we want the people to know who has left these ruins… who forced you to dig these pits even after so many years,” he remarked, telling the Congress that it had “left its footprints” for the people continued…
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