Union Minister for Fisheries, Giriraj Singh, has hit back in an interview with The Sunday Guardian at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for demanding a separate ministry for fishermen during his visit to Puducherry. Excerpts:
Q. What is your take on Rahul Gandhi›s remark on why there is no ministry for fishermen?
A. The whole world has watched today what the knowledge level of Rahul Gandhi is. He doesn’t even know how many departments there are in the government and fishery department is a separate department. He can’t come out of his Italian mindset. There is no agriculture ministry in Italy. I fear that someday, he will ask fishermen what crop they grow in water. If he wants to know about the fishery department, then I would be happy to invite him to my office. Secondly, I would like to tell him that this is the Modi government which is fully aware about villages, poverty and the real picture of the country.
Q. So you want to invite Rahul Gandhi with full data of your ministry?
A. Yes, I will put full data in front of him which will tell him about how much progress this department has made after 2014. Plus, he is telling a lie about the agriculture sector also. In the UPA’s tenure between 2009-2014, the total budget for agriculture was only Rs 88,000 crore; now it is Rs 4,87,000 crore. You spent hardly Rs 55,000 crore in farm loan waiver.
Q: The Congress is raising the issue of farmers and Priyanka Gandhi is attending Kisan Panchayats; does this mean you are not able to make farmers understand about the benefits of the farms bills and they are grabbing this opportunity?
A: They are from a big family and they don’t know what the farm laws are. They should read and understand what these farm laws are. They may seek some help from some expert of law or some parliamentarian who has been part of the standing committee on agriculture. This is not a matter of photo sessions. At the time of the pandemic, these siblings took part in photo sessions. They made fun of the plight of labourers during Covid-19 by using labourers for publicity. Someone who doesn’t know the difference between the Singhu border and the Shambhu border, how could he speak on farm laws?