Modi courts farmers as Badal sings his praises
11 Sept 2013 5:21 AM IST
Every Indian state should have its own agricultural export policy, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Monday said, asking the country to think big on the farm front.
Widely tipped to be the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Modi was addressing thousands of farmers from all over India at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Agricultural Summit here.
The two-day event, which Modi said was the first of its kind in India, saw Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal urge the younger counterpart not to confine himself to Gujarat.
‘Why do you confine yourself to Gujarat?’ Badal asked in his earlier speech, drawing a roaring round of applause at the packed Mahatma Mandir auditorium.
While Badal called Modi ‘desh ka mahan neta’ (great national leader), Madhya Pradesh agriculture minister Ramkrishna Kusmariya described the Gujarat chief minister as ‘Bharat ka bhavishya’ (India’s future).
With the Lok Sabha election only months away, both Modi and Badal took potshots at the central government for not doing enough for the country’s farming community.
Modi said he was sad that a set of suggestions he had given to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh years ago to improve the state of agriculture had not been acted on.
He said he had told Manmohan Singh that 500 Indian towns should be picked for solid waste management so that fertilizers thus produced could be given to farmers in the nearby regions.
He said he had decided to implement the scheme in Gujarat by selecting 50 towns.
‘India needs to think big on the agriculture export policy,’ Modi said, speaking extempore in Hindi. ‘Every state should formulate an agricultural export policy.’
Widely tipped to be the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Modi was addressing thousands of farmers from all over India at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Agricultural Summit here.
The two-day event, which Modi said was the first of its kind in India, saw Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal urge the younger counterpart not to confine himself to Gujarat.
‘Why do you confine yourself to Gujarat?’ Badal asked in his earlier speech, drawing a roaring round of applause at the packed Mahatma Mandir auditorium.
While Badal called Modi ‘desh ka mahan neta’ (great national leader), Madhya Pradesh agriculture minister Ramkrishna Kusmariya described the Gujarat chief minister as ‘Bharat ka bhavishya’ (India’s future).
With the Lok Sabha election only months away, both Modi and Badal took potshots at the central government for not doing enough for the country’s farming community.
Modi said he was sad that a set of suggestions he had given to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh years ago to improve the state of agriculture had not been acted on.
He said he had told Manmohan Singh that 500 Indian towns should be picked for solid waste management so that fertilizers thus produced could be given to farmers in the nearby regions.
He said he had decided to implement the scheme in Gujarat by selecting 50 towns.
‘India needs to think big on the agriculture export policy,’ Modi said, speaking extempore in Hindi. ‘Every state should formulate an agricultural export policy.’
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