Focus on ‘gai’ but where is fodder, asks Trinamool MP
New Delhi, August 5
Launching a scathing attack on the BJP, first-time Trinamool Congress MP from Jadavpur Sayoni Ghosh on Monday said despite making tall claims of protecting the cow, it had failed to provide fodder for them, leading to their deaths in states ruled by the saffron party. He further commented that the Central government’s journey had begun from “chai” (alluding to PM Narendra Modi’s tea-selling family background) but had ended with “gai”.
“They talk about ‘gau-raksha’, people should know that there is a fodder crisis in India,” she said, adding that the (fisheries) minister, in a written reply, had admitted that there was a fodder shortage. It means cows are dying without food in government-owned gaushalas, especially in the BJP-ruled states,” she said, while participating in a discussion on the demands for grants for the Ministry of Fishing, Dairy and Animal Husbandry.
“About 70 per cent of India’s rural poor depend on livestock and farm animals. But does this sector get what it deserves? If you seek a reply from our farmers, they will only say that ‘Chai se shuru hui sarkar and gai par atak gayi aur vikas ki mausi 10 saal mein raste mein bhatak gayi’,” she quipped amid thumping of desks by opposition benches.
On animal husbandry, she said 70 per cent of India’s rural poor depended on livestock, but the sector hardly received its just share. She raised concerns over the rising price of cattle and poultry feed.
“What are the farmers going to eat and feed their families and the cattle? This forces farmers to sell their cattle, and pushes them eventually to suicide,” she said. — TNS
