NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, soon after his attack at the opposition party and mocking its members on the floor of Parliament.
TMC accused Modi of avoiding replies to questions in the House raised by opposition parties on farmers protests to Covid-19 vaccination, among other issues raging across the country.
In the context of Modi taunting TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, saying, “I was listening to Derekji. He was using harsh words like freedom of speech, intimidation. When I was listening to him, I was wondering if he was talking about Bengal… Then I thought, he sees all of this, 24 hours a day, so maybe he has said it mistakenly here…”
Senior TMC leader and Lok Sabha MP Saugata Roy said, “Lies again. We spoke about freedom of speech, and fear mongering in the context of what is happening across the country. This has happened in Jammu and Kashmir earlier, it has happened with the CAA and now it is happening with the farmer’s agitation. We want to tell PM Modi that he did not talk about the real facts.”
Roy pointed out, “PM promised two crore jobs would be created every year. In fact, the unemployment rate in the country is now the highest in 45 years. When one crore jobs were lost across the country, Bengal reduced unemployment by 40% during the crisis. He did not comment on the damage done to the country by demonetization,” at a press conference here.
Modi mocked the parties for supporting the farmers protests but failed to provide and resolution for it, he added.
Speaking to the media later O’Brien too said, “PM was diverting issues and failed to address the concerns raised by opposition parties.”
Roy said, “PM went to Haldia yesterday and said that farmers are not getting benefits in Bengal. Take a look at this comparison. We asked the Food Corporation (of India) to procure six lakh metric tons of paddy, but they only bought 76000 metric tons. Bengal is the topmost producer of rice in India but the Centre procures rice from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana without buying from us.”
Accusing the PM of mishandling situations, Roy said, “He did not talk about the ill-planned lockdown that he announced… also failed to allay the suspicions of the general public about the Bharat Biotech vaccine… we left the Rajya Sabha in protest of President Ramnath Kovind‘s speech before the start of Narendra Modi’s speech on the Motion of Thanks.”