PM Modi accuses Opposition of crocodile tears for farmers at Bansagar canal launch

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said rival parties were shedding “crocodile tears” over farmers but had done little for them when in power, and of wasting public money by letting projects stall. He was speaking at Chandaipur in Mirzapur, in eastern Uttar Pradesh, after opening the Bansagar Dam Major Canal, whose foundation stone had been laid 40 years earlier.

A project delayed for decades

Modi said earlier governments at the Centre and in the state had ignored major irrigation schemes such as the Bansagar canal, as well as the question of raising minimum support prices (MSP) for crops, for decades. According to him, the canal began in 1978 with a budget of Rs 300 crore, but delays pushed its cost up to Rs 3500 crore, depriving farmers of its benefits and causing a heavy loss of public money.

Turning to Rahul Gandhi, Modi said the foundation had been laid by then Prime Minister Morarji Desai in 1978, after which Rahul Gandhi’s party held power for two decades. The SP and the BSP had also formed governments in the state, he said, yet none showed the resolve to finish the project.

Searching for stalled projects

Modi said such delayed projects, which he called “atke, latke and bhatke”, could be found in many states, and that the Opposition had never cared about them. After voters gave his party a chance in 2014, he said, his government began looking for stalled and forgotten schemes, and after the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, work on Bansagar resumed and was completed in a record 15 months.

What happened next

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP won 303 of 543 seats and the Congress 52, and Narendra Modi was sworn in for a second term on 30 May 2019.

See also: Bharatiya Janata Party, Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha members

Originally published on 16 July 2018. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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