Jyotiraditya Scindia slams Modi, says people need aata, not data

Congress party chief whip in the Lok Sabha and Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Saturday that the country’s downtrodden people don’t need “free data” but atta (flour).

Updated on: Sep 11, 2016, 06:34:31 IST

Hindustan Times | By Neeraj Santoshi, Bhopal

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Congress party chief whip in the Lok Sabha and Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Saturday that the country’s downtrodden people don’t need “free data” but aata (flour).

Senior Congress leaderJyotiraditya Scindia addresses a rally in Datia. (HT Photo)

Raising his mobile phone in air, Scindia alleged it was for the first time that the Prime Minister of a country was seen promoting the data in this “dabba” (mobile) for a company. The former union minister was addressing a massive Jan Akrosh rally in Datia district’s Indergarh tehsil on Saturday.

On the issue of land acquisition legislation, Scindia said it was Congress chief Sonia Gandhi who pushed this legislation initially but she wanted the land of farmers to be acquired with their permission. Scindia emphasised that Congress is the party of farmers, labourers and poor people.

Targeting chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Scindia said that Chouhan keeps calling anna dhata (food providing farmers) as his Bhagwan (God) and he as their Pujari (priest), but the plight of farmers was there for everybody to see.

He said many farmers have been jailed in the state in connection with loans and power bills. He said over 18000 farmers have committed suicide in the state.

The senior Congress leader appealed to people that they should give a befitting reply to the BJP in 2018, by voting for the Congress.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More

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