Land bill face-off: Rahul Gandhi takes aim at ‘suit boot sarkar’

New Delhi: In the third Lok Sabha speech of his 11-year parliamentary career, and the first one this Budget Session, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi mounted his sharpest ever attack on the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, accusing it of being a “suit-boot sarkar” and “pro-corporate”.

His 25-minute speech was laced with a lot of jibes as he played with the words “achche din government” and criticised the government for not addressing the distress of the farmers affected by unseasonal rain and hailstorms.

Reeling out statistics to drive home the points that the previous UPA government had ensured four per cent agricultural growth, with substantial growth in farm credit and minimum support prices, Mr Gandhi claimed agricultural growth had slumped to a mere one per cent under the NDA government while farm credit had grown by just about five per cent and that the MSP was stagnant.