PM Modi Address Rajya Sabha

Highlights of PM Modi’s address at the Rajya Sabha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the Rajya Sabha on Monday and renewed the central government’s offer of talks with the protesting farmers and slammed all the opposition parties for making a U-turn on the issues. PM Modi said at the Rajya Sabha that “The need of the hour is to improve the lives of the small farmers” while he was replying to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address. The marathon debate in the Rajya Sabha on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address on Friday had concluded with 50 speakers from 12 political parties taking part in the discussion which was done over a stretch of 3 days. Initially the opposition was keen on holding a separate on the new farm laws but they later agreed to a proposal to have it as a part of the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address.

‘Andolanjeevi’ and new form of FDI

PM Modi in his address said that the nation is extremely proud of the contribution of the Shiks as this is the community that has done so much for India and also mentioned that the words and blessings of the Guru Sahibs are precious. The kind of language used for the Sikh community, and the people trying to mislead them, will not benefit anyone said PM Modi. A new crowd named ‘andolanjeevi was mentioned by the PM Modi at Rajya Sabha, where he said that they live for ‘andolan’ (protests) and look for ways to start a new protest and the nation needed to be aware of these ‘andolanjeevis.’ FDI aka as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) but PM Modi in his speech mentioned a new kind of an FDI which he termed as ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’ and said that the nation needs to be aware and protect India from this new kind of FDI.

New ‘Farm Laws’ parallel to ‘Green Revolution’

PM Modi said, at the time of Shastri ji there was a huge cry in the country to recall the ‘Green Revolution’, no one was ready to take the position of the agriculture minister and the planning commission was also opposed then to the agricultural reforms. The left at that time too said the same thing that it is done in the instructions of America, and the leaders of the Congress were called ‘American Agents’, but Shastri ji moved forward even after thousands of protests were organized and today we have surplus production. PM Modi also stated that while the population is at a rise the lands are shrinking and so we have to take some measures to reduce our dependence on farming.

‘Modi implemented what Manmohan said. You should be proud’

At the Rajya Sabha today PM Modi said, every previous government has spoken of agricultural reforms and everyone agrees for the need to introduce reforms in the agricultural sector but I am shocked by the U-turn of many politicians currently as politics is so prevalent that people forget their own views. Prime Minister Modi then quoted the Manmohan Singh what the former prime minister had said: “There are several rigidities in the whole market since the 1930’s which prevent our farmers from selling their produce where they get the highest rate of return. It is our intention to remove all those handicaps which come in their way of India to become one large common market.” PM Modi said that the framers even during the lockdown period of the global pandemic have given a record-produce. There are many laws and every law is amended in few years, we are not static as change is a tradition pronounced PM Modi. We should talk to the protesting farmers and implement the changes, I will take the abuses and you can take the benefit from the law and this way we can move ahead together the PM affirmed as there are old people sitting at the protest sites and that is not right.

MSP tha, MSP hai aur MSP rahega

PM Modi assured today the Rajya Sabha that Minimum Support Price (MSP) was there, is there and will continue to remain in the future and mandis will be modernized with affordable rations for the poor will be continued. The various schemes by the NDA helped the farmers and PM Modi cited an example of the PMGSY and added the efforts made by the government like the Kisan Rail, he said further that to improve the life of the small farmers is the need of the hour.

Farming reforms: ‘Do we want to be part of problem or solution’

In the face of challenges we have to decide, if we want to be a part of a solution or part of the problem said PM Modi and then referred to the former prime minister of the country Chowdhary Charan Singh that he has said 68 percent of farmers in the country are small and marginal farmers and over 12 crore farmers have less than two hectares of land. PM Modi then questioned by asking “Don’t we have responsibility of the 12 crore farmers? and said that Charan Singh’s question still exists and asked if or not should we not find a solution to it? The center since 2014 has aimed at empowering the farmers and has initiated changes in the agriculture sector and to make it farmer friendly the crop insurance was changed and the PM-KISAN scheme was introduced. Most of the marginal framers do not hold a bank account, so they are not eligible to get loans said PM Modi and added that the loan waivers by the government do not benefit the small scale farmers, hence the small and marginalized farmers have been in the center of all our policies and schemes.

‘Unknown enemy coronavirus’

The COVID-19 situation has added a new strength to the federal structure of the country and the spirit of cooperative federalism said PM Modi, and added further that we were fighting against an unknown enemy and the world wondered that how will India handle the crisis, also everyone did their self analysis on how to fight against this unknown enemy. With the grace of God India manages it well and the credit of fighting this war goes to the people of India not to an individual or to any government declared PM Modi and concluded by saying that today India is making vaccines for the world.