NEW DELHI: Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Tuesday said that he doesn’t know if Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s memory failed when he made a remark on the country having no separate fisheries ministry.
“I am hurt. Rahul Gandhi had asked a question on February 2. But in Puducherry and Kochi, he said that there is no fisheries department, I don’t know if his memory failed him. ‘I will form a separate ministry when we come to power’, Gandhi had said. Whose question was this?” said Giriraj — Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying of India — while speaking in the Lok Sabha. After Gandhi’s gaffe in Puducherry on February 17 calling for the setting up of a separate ministry for fisheries, Giriraj had taken to Twitter to take a swipe at the Congress leader’s “ignorance” and attempt to “spread misinformation”.
“Caro Raul (@RahulGandhi), Non esiste un Ministero della pesca separato in Italia. Viene sotto Ministero delle Politiche Agricole e Forestali. politicheagricole.it” (There is no separate Ministry of Fisheries in Italy. It comes under the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry),” Giriraj had tweeted. Gandhi, who was in Puducherry that day to kickstart the Congress’ election campaign, had addressed the fishing community and spoke about the ongoing farmers’ protest. “The government passed three bills against farmers, the backbone of a nation. You must be wondering why am I talking about farmers at the meeting of fishermen. I consider you to be farmers of the sea. If farmers of the land can have a ministry in Delhi, then why is that farmers of the sea don’t have the same?” Gandhi had asked. “The current government is attacking small and medium businesses because they want all businesses to be controlled by big corporations.
Our view is different. We want to strengthen small and medium businesses because we believe that’s the strength of this country,” the Congress leader had said. After this remark from Gandhi, Giriraj — in a tweet in Hindi — had also said, “Rahul ji! You should know that on May 31, 2019, Modi ji created a new ministry. And started the Rs 20050 cr Master Plan (PMMSY) which is several times more than the central government’s expenditure from independence to 2014 (3682 cr).”
“Rahul Ji! I request you to come to the new fisheries ministry or call me where I come. Let me tell you about the schemes being run by the new Fisheries Ministry all over the country and Puducherry,” he had said in another tweet.
