Keeping alive ‘toolkit’ issue, PM Modi accuses Cong of being part of conspiracy to erase Assam ‘tea’ from world map

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 20

Prime Minister Narendra Modi once again accused the Congress of trying to erase the pride of Assam, its tea, from the World map, asking people to “teach it a lesson”.

Speaking in Chabua in poll-bound Assam, PM Modi told the audience: “Assam ki chai ke khilaaf saazish rakhne wali Congress jab Assam ki asmita ki baat karti hai to uske sare vayde khokhle lagte hain”.

“When the Congress, which is involved in the conspiracy against the tea of Assam, speaks about its (Assam’s) identity, the promises sound hollow. Don’t you think those trying to erase tea from the World-map need to be taught a lesson,” he said, keeping alive environmentalist Greta Thunberg’s controversial “toolkit” during the farmers’ agitation which allegedly spoke about aspects like yoga and tea adding to India’s soft power.

PM Modi said “people who are conspiring to defame India have stooped so low that they are not sparing even Indian tea”.

Accusing the Congress of “supporting such people for the sake of votes”, the PM said “plans are being made to finish the tea gardens in India”. He also tore into Congress for passing off an image from “Sri Lanka as that of Assam”.

“A couple of days they tried to pass off a photograph from Sri Lanka as Assam. Earlier they did the same with a photograph from Taiwan. Is it not an insult of Assam, its culture and way of life which they (Congress) have forgotten? Once can be a mistake, twice it means it is their habit,” he said, asking people to teach the party a “lesson” in the upcoming elections.     

Assam produces more than half of India’s tea.    

In his earlier visits to Assam also the Prime Minister has been speaking of “forces abroad conspiring to tarnish the image of Indian tea and defame the country,”

Meanwhile, giving details of the BJP’s plans for the State while elaborating his party’s development agenda in the past five years, PM Modi also accused the Congress of trying to “usurp” it.

The BJP-led government is seeking to retain power in Assam.

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