File photo: Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.
Taking a jibe at Rahul Gandhi over his repeated attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said the Congress Vice President should first do his homework well before levelling allegations on others.
"You never bothered to console those families at that time... neither the (AICC) president (Sonia Gandhi) nor the vice president (Rahul Gandhi), because your party was ruling at that time," Mr Naidu told reporters in Hyderabad, citing National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data that 1.6 lakh farmers committed suicide in the last 10 years in the country.
"Now that you are out of power and you just came in Hyderabad (Rahul's tour of Telangana) for a one-day trip and criticized the Prime Minister, ministers and the State and Central governments," the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs said.
Stepping up the attack on Mr Gandhi, Mr Naidu questioned the UPA government on low compensation paid to farmers who had relinquished their land under land acquisition processes.
"What is that you (UPA government) have done. During your regime of 10 years, more than two lakh acres of farm land was acquired with a nominal compensation from farmers of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and also Haryana.
It was done without giving adequate compensation. Now four times compensation is being given (by NDA government). You object to that. You must do homework before you make allegations against others," he said.
The senior BJP leader claimed that the Mr Gandhi scion's facts and figures with regard to agricultural growth rate, farm credit, Amethi food park, ban on fishing, were wrong.
"My suggestion is please do enough home-work before making statements and that too before making allegations against others. Otherwise it will boomerang on you. This is my advise to the Congress Vice President," he said.
Rahul Gandhi, who undertook a 15 km padayatra in Telangana last week to highlight problems faced by farmers, had targeted PM Modi and state Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, whom he dubbed as "mini-Modi", accusing them of reneging from poll promises to farmers.
"When there was excess rain, hailstorms (in parts of the country), where were these central Congress leaders. Why they have not visited Telangana, Andhra Pradesh or any other parts (of the country)," Mr Naidu questioned.
He said ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh visited the areas affected by untimely rains in their states and that Gandhi should ask his own leaders over their action in the same regard.
"Central and state ministers (from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) visited the affected areas. But what Congress leaders were doing at that time... they should answer this question," Mr Naidu said.
"Modi government has relaxed norms (eligibility criterion) for relief to farmers during natural calamities from 50 per cent damage to crop to 33 per cent. It is a pro-poor and pro-farmer initiative of the government," he said.
Earlier, the previous Congress government gave Rs 1.2 lakh compensation for damaged crops, the minister said, adding that the Modi government has increased the compensation from Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh per acre, Mr Naidu added.