Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who visited Kerala yesterday said that he would create separate ministry for fisheries if the party is voted to power at Centre.
Speaking to fishermen at at Kollam’s Thangassery beach, the Congress leader said “Just like our farmers farm the land, you farm the sea. Farmers have a Ministry in Delhi, you don’t. No one speaks for you in Delhi. The first thing I’d do is have a Ministry dedicated to fishermen of India so that your issues can be defended & protected.”
The Wayanad MP had repeated the same thing when he was speaking to fishermen in Puducherry last week where he said that Congress government would create a separate Ministry for fishermen.
It is to be noted that the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying was created in 2019 and presently Shandilya Giriraj Singh serves as the Minister.
When Rahul Gandhi had made the comment last week, the Minister took a sharp jibe at the Congress leader in Italian saying “Dear Raul, there is no separate Ministry of Fisheries in Italy. It comes under the Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry Policies.”
What is even more striking is that the Congress leader had also asked a question in the Parliament to the Ministry.
Answering this query, Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Pratap Chandra Sarangi, said that the department had already created the infrastructure for meeting the requirements of the farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana and that funds have been allocated for the same. He went on to elaborate on the provisions that grant funds and aid to fishermen under various circumstances.
Many on social media have been calling out Rahul Gandhi’s ignorance and have been left bewildered with the Congress leader repeating the same lie again.
Same. I checked the time stamp too because it seemed unbelievable. He also put up a question in Parliament to the same ministry just 3 weeks ago. pic.twitter.com/sIQywoeOL7
— Ishita Yadav (@IshitaYadav) February 24, 2021
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.