In Pics: Narendra Modi's rally in Wardha

Wardha (Maharashtra): Accusing the UPA government of ignoring farmers' interests, Narendra Modi today spoke about his vision for addressing their concerns, which includes saving them from clutches of money-lenders, rationalising farm exports and inter-linking of rivers. Addressing a public meeting in this cotton belt of Maharashtra, he raked up the issue of suicides by farmers because of heavy debts and “lack of support” from the government and banks.Targeting the government, the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate said more farmers have died due to suicides during the 10-year-rule of Congress-led UPA than soldiers on the borders.“...When farmers are committing suicides, the government in Delhi is sleeping peacefully,” the Gujarat Chief Minister said.“For a variety of reasons the farmers have to take debt and falls under a debt trap,” Modi said while talking about the causes of their suicides.He vowed that if his government comes to power after the Lok Sabha polls, “farmers won't have to go to Sahukars (money-lenders) for loans at exorbitant interest”.He said first guarantee of a government must be that a farmer cannot be allowed to die.Taking up the issues of cotton farmers, he accused the Centre of causing losses to them by banning the export of the commodity even while promoting meat exports. “Why was cotton export banned,” he questioned.Taking a jibe at the government, Modi said that “it has become a fashion to declare a package after every crisis” and suggested that it was “time to pack those who keep giving these packages that don't reach you (farmers)”.Modi stressed on the need for rivers to be inter-linked in order to improve irrigation facilities and ward off both drought and flood situations.The Gujarat Chief Minister highlighted the example of his Madhya Pradesh counterpart, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has linked the Narmada and Shipra rivers. Modi gave a formula of five ‘Fs'—farm to fibre to fabric to fashion to foreign—to promote garment exports. He said that a small country like Bangladesh was dominating the world in garment exports while India was lagging behind.Meanwhile, in an apparent dig at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, Modi said that the “Shehzada” was fooling people by making false promises.Referring to the ‘One-rank, One-pension' claims by Gandhi, Modi said that for 60 years, defence personnel had been making the demand with Presidents and Prime Ministers, but nothing had happened.“At least you (Gandhi) could have told us about getting the heads back of our beheaded soldiers,” Modi said in reference to the beheading of an Indian solider along the Indo-Pak border.Recalling that Lal Bahadur Shastri had awakened the nation with his ‘Jai jawan, Jai kisan' slogan as India sought to achieve self-sufficiency in food production, Modi alleged that the present government had ignored farmers. The Gujarat Chief Minister also called on farmers to go for innovative farming practices and divide their farming in three parts—one each for traditional crops, animal husbandry and timber plantation along the borders of agricultural fields.Regretting that they were not being given priority by Railways, Modi sought increased support from the public transporter for the farming community to ensure timely transportation of farm produce.Modi once again gave the call to make the country free of Congress rule and pointed out that the Quit India call to British was given by Mahatma Gandhi in Wardha. The BJP stalwart also visited Gandhi Ashram in Sewagram near Wardha, becoming the the first top saffron leader to tour the historic place in recent times. The Prime Ministerial aspirant devoted a large part of his speech on issues related to farmers, who are a distressed lot in Vidarbha, where hundreds of debt-ridden agriculturists have committed suicide in the past few years. Launching a frontal attack on the Congress-led UPA Government, Modi said it has failed to protect the precious lives of farmers and as well as jawans deployed on borders. Modi expressed his opposition to export of beef from India, saying it will lead to drop in animal population. BJP leaders Nitin Gadkari, Devendra Fadnavis, Sudhir Mungattiwar and Vinod Tawde, among others, were present on the occasion.