New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi today came under attack in Lok Sabha, with the government accusing him of “playing politics of deception” and “misleading” the House over a mega food park project in his constituency Amethi, is evoking strong protests from Congress members.
“The project was cancelled on July 11, 2014.....Were you sleeping for 10 months? It is you who wants to resort to politics of revenge,” Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur said, triggering loud cheers from the treasury benches and protests from Congress members who stormed the Well of the House.
Gandhi had yesterday attacked the government in the House over the food park, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of practicing politics of revenge and not “politics of change” which he had promised.
The issue of Gandhi's allegation was today raised by BJP member Kirit Somaiah, who said he had given a notice for privilege motion against the Congress Vice President for allegedly misleading the House on the food park issue.
While Gandhi was not present in House at that time, Kaur intervened to say that the Congress leader was “misleading the nation and misleading people of the country” in the matter.
Accusing Gandhi of “not doing his home work” and playing “politics of deception” on the issue, she sought to ridicule the Congress leader for raising the problem of the potato-growers after returning from a foreign jaunt.
She said Gandhi had done precious little in the matter after the food park was given permission way back in 2010. She said the developers of the food park had not even laid the foundation by 2012 for which they were issued a show cause notice.
The promoters wanted gas supply at concessional rates, but the then Petroleum Minister in 2013 had rejected the request, she said.
Rahul had yesterday alleged that the Centre had scrapped the project in his family pocket-borough which would have benefited farmers in 10 districts.
Responding to this immediately, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said as far as he knew, it was the company behind the mega food park which pulled out. He, however, assured Gandhi that he would look into the matter as the Centre believed in taking all parties along for the country's development.
Raising the issue today, Somaiah said Gandhi was playing politics over the issue of farmers and he has given a notice for moving breach of privilege motion against the Congress leader for “misleading” the House.
Somaiya alleged in a letter to the Speaker that the Congress leader “lied” about Amethi Food Park and attempted to blame the Prime Minister and the NDA Government for the cancellation.
The BJP member claimed that in spite of seven extensions, the food park could not come up and its cancellation is the result of a decision taken during the UPA regime itself.
He said the Petroleum Ministry never committed to give the gas for the project and “there is not even any instance of the local MP putting a word for relevant permissions”.
Besides, Somaiya claimed that NDA government gave yet another chance to the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which was setting up the park at a meetinf on June 9 last year. “But, due to inordinate delays the in-principle approval had to be cancelled”.
Somaiya urged the Speaker to take “necessary measures” against Gandhi and that his petition is sent to Privilege Committee or Protocol Committee.
