Veteran leader Rahul Gandhi is associating himself with break India fringe group ideologies, the finance minister said.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying he is probably becoming the “doomsday man” of India, building “fake narratives” that “demean” the country. As Sitharaman on Saturday was replying to the discussion on Union Budget 2021 in the Lok Sabha, she posed 10 questions about Rahul Gandhi’s speech which was mainly on farmers’ protest, not Union Budget 2021, the finance minister said.
“He said he would be only commenting on farmers’ issues as this is also part of the budget. I am also giving my reply pertaining to that,” Sitharaman said.
First, the finance minister said she expected Rahul Gandhi to explain the Congress’s U-turn on farm reforms as similar promises were part of Congress’s election manifesto earlier.
Sitharaman counters Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Hum do, Hamare do’ with MNREGA data
Second, Sitharaman said she expected Rahul Gandhi to explain why farm loan waiver was not been implemented in Madhya Pradesh (when Congress was in power), Rajasthan. “Congress is so sympathetic to farmers’ issues. Then why not implement loan waiver especially when you come to power riding on these promises,” Sitharaman said.
“My third expectation was Rahul Gandhi would say something on Punjab’s ‘kala kanoon’ that has provision to send farmers to jail. I thought he would say he has asked Punjab CM to repeal that law,” Sitharaman said.
In her fourth point, she said she expected Gandhi to say something on stubble burning but he did not.
“I expected Rahul Gandhi to at least point one clause of the three laws that is anti-farmer,” the finance minister said in her fifth point.
In her sixth point, the finance minister referred to Gandhi’s ‘Hum do, Hamare do’ jibe and said, “When PM Modi talked about small farmers, I expected Rahul Gandhi to announce that he had also asked ‘his two’ to return lands to farmers that were acquired at throwaway prices. But he didn’t do that.”
“I had also expected Rahul Gandhi to say that Congress party won’t dishonour Manmohan Singh after PM Modi quoted Manmohan Singh on farm reforms. I expected he would say why the Congress has started to forget Manmohan Singh’s ideas,” she said listing this as her seventh point.
“Can you show one proof of APMC being closed anywhere in the country? I expected him to come up with at least one example,” Sitharaman said.
“This is not an expectation, but a question to Rahul Gandhi. Why does he choose to insult constitutional authorities?” Sitharaman asked even raking up the 2013 incident when Gandhi had trashed then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ordinance when Singh was abroad.
“My last point will be the fake narrative that he is building identifying with the ‘break India fringe group’. I remember what he said about Covid-19 pandemic. I don’t want to waste the time of the House by repeating the same but in summary, it was like ‘I will continue to demean India’. The veteran leader is perhaps becoming the doomsday man of India,” Sitharaman said.