Patna, Sep 22 (IANS) Taking a dig at the Modi government over the agriculture-related Bills, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has said that it has made 'anna datas' or food-providers the puppets of its 'fund datas' or fund-providers.
"The Modi government has already privatised so many government entities... agriculture is one sector that was till now considered untouched. The NDA government has privatised it too with the passage of the two agri Bills by the two Houses of Parliament," the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly said.
"This government has put the future of farmers in the hands of industrialists. The latter will have complete control over foodgrains, seeds, fertilisers, agriculture and irrigation-related equipment etc. The idea is to control the whole Indian economy. Farmers will now be completely dependent on industrialists for the sale of farm produce. It's not the farmers but industrialists who will decide the price of foodgrains."
The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader said that ahead of the Assembly elections, all non-Bihari leaders were talking about Bihar and Bihari pride round the clock.
"Once the Assembly elections are over, they will not utter a single word in the interest of Bihar and Biharis. Nearly 86 lakh persons in 17 districts in Bihar were affected by floods in recent months, but the Centre did not send any observer to assess the situation. Even Chief Minister Nitish Kumar does not care about floods or water-logging in the state," Tejashwi said.
Taking another dig at allies Janata Dal-United and the BJP, he pointed out that the latter had remarked in the past that Nitish's DNA was bad. "They put a question mark on his DNA; now they are pointing at Bihari pride."
Tejashwi questioned what had happened to Nitish's demands for a special package and a special status for Bihar in the past. "Have they forgotten these issues?"
"When the Prime Minister visited Motihari for campaigning in the last elections, he said that its sugar mill will be reopened and he will drink tea made from sugar supplied by it. But the mill is still closed. This is the 'Chaal', 'Charitra', and 'Chehra' of the National Democratic Alliance government."
Meanwhile, Bihar's Public Health Engineering Minister Vinod Narayan Jha accused the RJD and Congress members in the Rajya Sabha of "attacking" Deputy Speaker Harivansh Narayan Singh and demanded an apology from them.
BJP Bihar unit chief spokesman Nikhil Anand said: "The attack on the Deputy Speaker is tantamount to the murder of democracy. Such an incident has never occurred in the history of Parliament."
"He has set an example by serving tea to the eight suspended Rajya Sabha members who were sitting on a dharna in front of Mahatma Gandhi's status in the Parliament Complex," he added.
