New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has done it again. Days after committing a gaffe, he reiterated on Wednesday that there is no dedicated ministry for fishermen. He also assured them of forming a Central ministry dedicated to the fishermen.

The comments by Congress MP came at an interaction with the fishing community in Kollam’s Thangassery.

“Just like our farmers farm the land, you farm the sea. Farmers have a Ministry in Delhi, you don’t. No one speaks for you in Delhi. The first thing I would do is to have a ministry dedicated to the fishermen of India so that your issues can be defended and protected,” said the Congress leader in Kollam.

He made a similar gaffe in Puducherry earlier this month. Earlier, Rahul Gandhi had demanded setting up of a separate ministry for fisheries at Centre.

‘Planned strategy to mislead farmers,’ says Minister

Union Minister for fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairy Giriraj slammed the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his repeated gaffe of having no dedicated ministry to deal with the issues of fishermen. He also called it a well-thought strategy of Congress MP to mislead the people of the country.

“He (Rahul Gandhi) should know that there is a fisheries department for which an investment of Rs 20,050 cr has been made by the Centre. In 70 years, work that couldn’t be done by your ‘Nanaji’ and others, has been done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the Minister told ANI.

साहेबजादे और उनके सिपहसालार मोदी जी के हाथों लगातार हार से अस्तित्वहीन और मानसिक रूप से बीमार हो गए हैं
उन्हें कोई नया आइडिया नहीं मिल रहा,सिद्धांत विहीन कांग्रेस अब झूठ और अराजकता पर टिकी है।
उत्तर-दक्षिण,पूर्व-पश्चिम कहीं भी विभाजन और विघटन की राजनीति को कोई बर्दाश्त नहीं करेगा

— Shandilya Giriraj Singh (@girirajsinghbjp) February 24, 2021

“I believe that it’s a planned strategy. On one hand, the brother is putting a rift between north and south and the sister is misleading the farmers. Rahul Gandhi’s strategy is to mislead the fishermen. He is either conspiring to mislead the country or he does not have the sufficient knowledge,” Singh added.

On earlier occasion, Rahul’s comments were immediately refuted by the Minister. Taking a jibe at Gandhi’s ignorance, Giriraj Singh had said, “Rahul Gandhi is unaware that a separate ministry for fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying was formed by the Prime Minister in 2019, adding that Gandhi can’t come out of Italy.”