Rahul takes ' hum do, humare do' jibe at government in LS, says farm laws will impact food security

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday took "hum do, humare do" jibe at the government and said the new farm laws brought by the government will lead to "collapse of mandi system and allow unlimited hoarding".

Participating in the discussion on the union budget in Lok Sabha here, Gandhi alleged that the farm laws will adversely impact small and marginal farmers and "destroy the food security system".

He said also attacked the government over demonetisation and "flawed" implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Referring to the family planning slogan of 'Hum do hamare do' (we too and our two children), he alleged that the government was being run on this agenda and accused it of promoting "crony capitalism".

"Like COVID-19 comes back in a different form, this slogan has come back in a different form. Hum do hamare do. Everyone knows whose government is it," he said.

Gandhi said the government has not paid tributes to farmers who died during the protest on the borders of Delhi against new farm laws. He led members of his party and of some other opposition parties to observe a two-minute silence over death of "200 farmers".

Speaker Om Birla disapproved the move of Congress leader, saying he has been entrusted the responsibility to run the House by members and the member should have approached him.

Gandhi said he was speaking on the "content and intent" of three farm laws to which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had referred in his speech on Wednesday.

"Yesterday while addressing the House, PM said that the Opposition is talking about the agitation but not about the content and intent of Farm Laws. I thought I should make him happy today and speak on the content and intent of the laws," he said.

Gandhi alleged that the first law "was aimed at finishing the mandis".

"The content of the second law is that big businessmen can store as much food grains, fruits and vegetables as they want. They can hoard as much as they want. Content of the second law is to end the Essential Commodities Act. It is, to start unlimited hoarding in India," he said.

"The content of the third law is that when a farmer goes before the biggest businessman of India to demand the right price for his crops, he will not be allowed to go to the Court," he added.

He alleged that the new farm laws will lead to "bhookh, berozgaari and aatma hatya" (starvation, unemployment and suicides).

There were exchanges between Congress and treasury benches during Gandhi's speech. The BJP members said he was not speaking on the union budget for which he had been allotted time.

( With inputs from ANI )