Amethi food park: Kaur lashes out at Rahul

Rahul Gandhi on Friday 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, 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 on Friday 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. .