Some people think that the country’s constitution and democracy are in their pocket.

From the platform of ‘India Agriculture Conference’ organized in the capital New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a sharp political attack on the country’s opposition parties, especially the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, without naming them. In his address, the Prime Minister said that nowadays some people take out a copy of the Constitution from their pocket and are under the illusion that the Constitution and democracy of the country are in their pocket. PM Modi sarcastically said that despite not being in power, such leaders have a ‘different intoxication of power’. He stressed that the conduct and attitude of those who today go around spreading the knowledge of protecting constitutional institutions and democracy, when they were at the helm of power, was completely undemocratic.

During his address, Prime Minister Modi highlighted the working style of the then UPA government by referring to an old and famous incident when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He told that at one time, when the ranking of the best performing states of the country was released on the basis of research and ratings of eminent economists, Gujarat got the first position in it. PM Modi said that the organization which had given Gujarat the number one position, was named after a former Prime Minister of the country.

The Prime Minister revealed that the people then in power at the Center could not digest this national honor of Gujarat and a formal order was issued to the officials and researchers from Delhi that in future it would be mandatory to take prior approval from the government before publishing or making any such report public. PM Modi said that those who worked to strangle independent research institutions and democratic processes are today pretending to be protectors of democracy.

Apart from political attacks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also talked about the historic growth journey of India’s agriculture sector and the strength of the rural economy. He said that this is the first time since independence that agricultural growth rate has been recorded at more than 4 percent continuously in a decade. The PM said that despite the increase in crude oil prices in the global market, the Central Government did not let the farmers bear the burden of diesel and fertilizer inflation even after suffering a loss of Rs 14,000 crore every month.

Referring to India’s food self-reliance, PM Modi said that today the country stands first in the world in milk, pulses, jute and rice production, while it stands firmly at second place in wheat, fruits, vegetables and fisheries. He appealed to agricultural companies to develop modern technology to operate farming equipment on solar energy. He clarified that the primary goal of the government is to establish India’s ‘Annadata’ as powerful ‘Agri-Entrepreneurs’ rather than limiting them to just farming, so that the national resolution of ‘Developed India’ can be achieved by 2047.