Congress in Gujarat created "polity" of love of chair: Narendra Modi

AHMEDABAD: Accusing the previous Congress regimes of Gujarat of creating "polity" of the love of chair, Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said unlike them, his government was working for farmers' welfare.

"Congress created a polity where they were interested in the chair and not the well-being of our farmers. Congress did Kursi-Bhakti (power-worship) whereas we are engaged in Krishi-Bhakti (agriculture-worship)," Modi said at a farmer's rally at Limkheda, Dahod district.

Taking dig at the functioning of Congress governments, Modi said when five chickens were loaned to farmers, their meat was eaten by the officials.

"This is what they did. We brought a change. We want to give loans for tractors, loans for machines, we want to give loans so that children of the tribals can go overseas and study," Modi said.

He also blamed the Congress regimes for the water problems of Gujarat. "If the earlier governments had worked on the water situation, our farmers would have prospered but they did not do that."

According to Modi, Rs 3,400 crore were given for water-related issues of tribal areas alone by his government.

Modi also said that Central government in the last nine years failed to add even a kilogram to enhance fertiliser production capacity.

Crediting the small and medium farmers of Gujarat with revolutionising agriculture in the last one decade, Modi said "95 per cent of our farmers are small or medium sized farmers. We do not have any big zamindars. This agriculture revolution in Gujarat is due to our small farmers."

He also mentioned that his government had raised budget for Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana (a scheme for tribal welfare) from Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore.