Union Minister Smriti Irani speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Budget session of Parliament, in New Delhi, Wednesday, Feb 7, 2024.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Union Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday attacked the Congress, saying Amethi in Uttar Pradesh lacked development during the 48 years that members of the Gandhi family represented the seat in the Lok Sabha.
In an intervention during the debate on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, Irani said it was only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014 that the constituency saw development.
Irani, who is the minister for women and child development, had defeated Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The constituency has been represented by Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
The senior BJP leader said such was the Congress' intolerance for any challenger to the Gandhi family in Amethi that even Mahatma Gandhi's grandson Rajmohan Gandhi was humiliated and beaten up with bricks when he contested the Lok Sabha elections from the coveted seat in 1989.
"Rajmohan Gandhi contested against the Gandhi family...he was humiliated as 'naqli' (fake) Gandhi ... Maneka Gandhi too was humiliated. Sharad Yadav, who contested from Amethi, was humiliated and asked to graze his cows," Irani said.
The minister said she has thanked Ram Lalla for choosing Leader of the Lok Sabha (Modi) to preside over the 'Pran Pratishtha' (consecration) ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya. The ceremony was held on January 22.
"I also thank Ram Lalla. When he decided to assume his place in the grand temple, he chose the Leader of this House to preside over the 'Pran Pratishtha'. We saw the 'rashtra sevak' in the humble form of 'Ram sevak' at Ayodhya Dham. It is a matter of good fortune," Irani said.
"This is also true that the prime minister accepted the invitation for the 'Pran Pratishtha' ceremony. And, there were some who rejected the lord (Ram) as also the invitation," she said.
Slamming the Congress, the minister quoted the 2011 Census and said 62 per cent households in Sultanpur district -- which falls under the Amethi Lok Sabha seat -- did not have access to electricity, while 83 per cent homes did not have toilets.
It was only after Narendra Modi became prime minister that Amethi got soil testing labs, krishi vikas kendras and a railway rack for fertilisers, which was a long-standing demand of farmers of the region, Irani said.
She said more than 40 villages in the Amethi constituency got electricity for the first time when a "double-engine" government of the BJP came in Uttar Pradesh.
Irani said a new slogan was reverberating in her Lok Sabha constituency -- "Naye Bharat ki bhor hai ... Amethi kehti hai Modi once more hai' (it is the dawn of a new India and Amethi says Modi once more)".