PRIME MINISTER CALLS AGITATORS ‘ANDOLAN-JIVIS’ REMARK BY OPPOSITION
Bureau,Odishabarta
Delhi: Leaders of Opposition parties and farmer unions on Monday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his ‘Andolan-jivi’ (professional protestors) remark against the backdrop of the agitation for the repeal of the three farm laws, calling it an ‘insult’ to farmers.
The Opposition parties also countered Modi’s reference to the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) term to dub support from abroad for the farmers’ protest as ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’ with a Congress leader alleging this is coming from someone whose governance has been based solely on ‘Fear, Deception, Intimidation’.
The BJP, on its part, asserted that the Prime Minister’s address has dispelled the web of confusion being created over a host of issues and laid out a clear direction for the country.
The Prime Minister, in his reply to a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on a motion thanking the President for his address to the joint sitting of Parliament, slammed the mushrooming of a new crop of ‘Andolan-jivi’,who live for protests and look for ways to start a new movement, and said the country needs to be wary of them.
Modi also punned on the term FDI to warn against damaging influences from abroad. “We need Foreign Direct Investment but the new FDI is ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’, we have to protect ourselves from it,” he said in an apparent reference to the backing given to the farmers’ protest by international celebrities and activists like American pop star Rihanna and Swedish climate-activist Greta Thunberg.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of 41 farm unions spearheading the protest for the repeal of the three new agri laws, “condemns the insult” of farmers by the Prime Minister, said a statement from the organisation issued by its leader Darshan Pal.
“Farmers would like to remind the PM that it is ‘andolans’ that have liberated India from colonial rulers and that is why we are proud to be ‘Andolan-jivi’.”
Congress leader and Maharashtra Minister Ashok Chavan also termed as an ‘insult’ to farmers the use of word ‘Andolan-jivi’. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh countered the Prime Minister on his description of FDI. “In Parliament today, PM Modi said that FDI is also ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’. This from someone whose governance has been based solely on FDI “ Fear, Deception, Intimidation,” he stated.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that ‘apart from rhetoric, Modi ji could not say anything concrete in Rajya Sabha’.
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