Rahul slams Oppn for 'stalling' Food Bill

Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Opposition parties for stalling the Food Security Bill in Parliament, and asserted the UPA government was determined to enact the legislation for the benefit of people. "I am sad that the opposition is acting against the interests of the poor Indian...I can understand politics. But I cannot understand political parties hurting the poor of the country," Rahul told a party rally here.

"We have been working on the Bill for quite some time. But the opposition does everything that they can do to stall the Bill. It does not matter what they do. The UPA and the Congress are going to give you (people) the right to food to ensure that no single Indian goes to sleep at night hungry," Rahul said at a well-attended rally at Central Stadium here. Spelling out the salient features of the UPA's economic policies, he said Congress, while pursuing liberalisation, believed in inclusive growth to ensure that every Indian was part of the progress. "We believe in inclusive growth, liberalisation, opening up of business. But every single Indian should become part of the progress," he said. The Congress vice-president also took a dig at the Communists in the country for holding on to an ideology that had "failed" all over the world. Even China had changed its old approach towards Communism, he said. "As you know, rest of the world has given up Communism. In fact, on Sunday the leader of China is coming to India. China itself has a different view of Communism from what they used to have," he said apparently targeting the CPM-led LDF Opposition in Kerala. "I would ask the Communist party to ask themselves as how their ideology has failed all over the world and why they are holding to the ideology that has failed all over the world," he said. Rahul said it was disturbing that the opposition in Kerala was "using violence" against the Congress workers. "Everybody is allowed to have their view point. But what disturbs me is the systematic use of violence and aggression (by the opposition) against Congress workers," he said. The rally was organised to mark the culmination of the month-long 'Kerala Yatra' led by KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala. Union Ministers A K Antony, Vayalar Ravi, Shashi Tharoor and Mullappally Ramachandran were among those who attended the meeting.