 How is everybody doing? Having a difficult time with Covid? Yeah. I hope everyone's family is safe. Yeah, adults and everybody. I believe you wanted to ask me some questions. Stop. So I'll just make an opening statement and then you can ask me your questions. As everybody knows, the world is going through a Covid pandemic and it's quite a difficult time for everybody. We had suggested to the national government that they should take certain actions that we felt would help our people, especially the weaker sections, farmers, labourers. Unfortunately, they didn't take those actions. They didn't inject money into the system as quickly as they should have and that has made the problem worse. And the weakest people in our country have taken the main brunt of the disease. I think the national lockdown done without any warning has created certain issues. Large numbers of our labourers who are forced to walk back home faced a tragedy. But that is the past and I think now the nation needs to look positively at how to fight this disease. Please feel free to ask me any questions. Can you speak louder? So how do you deal with the measures that you have taken? Well, I've had two meetings with the administration here. I think the central idea that Kerala is following, which is naturally the idea that Kerala always follows is a decentralized response. A response more based on the people of Kerala, healthcare workers, panchayats, doctors. So it is to me the spirit of the people of Kerala that are giving a good result here, a decent result here. Of course there are shortcomings like there are in every situation. But overall I feel that the spirit of Kerala, spirit of people of Kerala is going to overcome this disease here. In Vaidar there are some unique requirements. There are weaker sections, there are tribal populations. So we have to be a bit more careful and provide a bit more support to those who are weaker. I suggested that in the meetings today. Overall I think in Vaidar the work being done is good. You said about Harshvardhan ji, I think it's an unfortunate comment. This whole nation has to fight this disease together and I don't think it's appropriate to blame someone or the other. I think the spirit should be let us overcome this challenge and it's a huge challenge. I had warned the government of India, in fact Harshvardhan ji himself publicly in February that India was facing a huge challenge. And it was not taken seriously. But I feel the time to sort of point fingers is not right now. I think right now we should all work together. Can we do your question at the end because as we are in Kerala I'd like to do all the Kerala stuff first and we can complete. Anybody else? An online immigration was cancelled in the last minute, last week. According to the state government they were now cancelled as before. Look frankly an inauguration is not really the central idea. I mean okay if an inauguration is cancelled it's fine. I don't really have a real problem with it. But I think I am a representative of the people of Vainanth, like many other representatives. I'm not a known, I'm a member of parliament, they are MLA, they are Pradhan. They are all sorts of public representatives and we represent the voice of the people. And I think that that voice of the people must not be courtier. So you must not try to curtail the voice of the people simply because I come from a different political party or a different political ideology. An inauguration is fine, it doesn't cause me much of a problem. I think because especially when we are fighting a pandemic all views are important. I think it's very important that the opposition also has a space, is able to express its viewpoint because after all we all represent the viewpoint of the people of India. This is a BMC meeting also. See again question is not whether it is fair or not. The question is that all of us are public representatives and we all have a role. When I sit in the meeting I am bringing a perspective to that meeting and that perspective is not my personal perspective. It's the perspective of the people that I represent. I fight for those people. Same with somebody who works at the panchayat. Same with an MLA. It doesn't matter which party is from, it's bringing a perspective. And I think it's unfortunate that you do not allow that perspective into the room. I think the more public representatives who are allowed to speak on behalf of the people the better it is. And I think this is the spirit of Kerala. So it is unfortunate. But it will not stop us. It will not stop us from raising the views of the people. Yesterday we were in a meeting and if you speak to the people in the meeting it was a productive meeting. They suggested many ideas that we thought were useful. We suggested many ideas that they thought were useful. And the end result is better for everybody. There is no harm in allowing public representatives to discuss people's issues. It's not going to harm anybody. And especially in a time like COVID it's important that people feel that their view is also being represented inside the government. It will actually help the government to listen to panchayat leaders from all parties. I have already answered the question. I don't want to get into a 2-2-MA blame game type of situation. I am here as I said to help put on the table the view of the people of India. If I feel that farmers of Varanar are feeling something I will put it in the meeting so that the administration is aware of it. And I will push that sentiment. So my job is to push the viewpoint of the public inside meetings or even in conversations like this. Of course there is an election. I mean it's fine. It's not the end of the world. I fight the government of Kerala here and I fight them ideologically. But that does not stop me from giving advice that I find useful for the people of Kerala. I will not give advice because they are my political opponents. I will give advice that is beneficial to the people of Kerala. And I think it is a good thing if the government also listens. Not a bad thing. We will let them in touch. Anybody else? Well this evening I am having a very interesting meeting which is about the rice growers. And how we can think about marketing why not rice. So I think there is a lot of potential in different areas in why not. There is potential in rice, there is potential in turmeric, other areas. We are having that conversation. I think there is a tragedy unfolding at the national level as far as agriculture is concerned. And it is going to be a devastating tragedy. And government in Punjab has just taken steps to try and overtake. These three new laws that the government has come up with are going to break the back of Indian agriculture. They are not just going to break the back of small farmers, they are going to break the back of every single farmer. And these three laws are designed in a sense to open the path for one or two big business players. They are designed to take the agricultural strength of India, the food security of India and give it to two or three key players that are close to the prime minister. You are not going to repeat an age, you know their needs. So this is a devastating blow to the farmers. And what is the real tragedy is being done at the time of Covid. You could have waited six months, you could have waited one year. But it was done at the time of Covid because the government feels that the farmer will not be able to resist at the time of Covid. The farmer will not be able to stand up for his rights at the time of Covid. The government is wrong. The Indian farmer is the backbone of this country and he will resist these laws. And we are going to help him resist these laws. I think these laws are dangerous. They are dangerous for the country. They will impact food security of this country and they will devastate the lives of millions of farmers. I'll tell you a little bit about the idea. Currently there is a food security system in India that is structured around procurement, MSP and the Mandi system. And these laws are designed to destroy this architecture. They are designed to destroy the Mandi system, destroy procurement, destroy MSP. And as a result they will destroy food security, which will be a terrible blow to take up that 50 years. The black-and-white world is facing more problems. Yes. And I am aware of that. I think if you look at Wainar and not the country, but at Wainar, I think there are many unique opportunities for small scale farmers in Wainar. I think there is a lot that can be done with regards to marketing their products, with regards to exporting some of their products, with regards to improving the product. I think there is a lot that can be done. In fact, in our meeting today we had some suggestions and we were able to have deeper conversation. I think one of the things that I would like to see is, just like Basmati rice is sort of a patented, branded idea, I would like to see some of Wainar's rice to become a global patented, branded idea. So I think there is a lot of scope and it's quite exciting. In Wainar, only under 20 years. Currently there is a problem, currently the problem that small scale farmers are having, which we also raised in the meeting, is that the subsidy that they normally get has been taken away from them, because of Covid. Because they are unable to pay their interest from their loans, so their subsidy has been taken away. This is a real problem. There is a lot of subsidy. Yes. I think let's allow others to ask questions. We are going into some of these things in detail. I think there is already the NIA and others are investigating this issue and I think let's see where that investigation goes. Let's see where it goes and I think justice must prevail in all counts. Anybody else? Any last Kerala questions or can we go to the national level? No more? Okay, thank you. Go ahead. Yesterday the TV has questioned a very senior leader for a couple of many hours and he was also complaining that they will not even give him our permission to have his lunch for a very elderly person like that. So how do you perceive the intervention of central agencies in these cases, considering the latest developments in general? Look, we have seen a tendency now for the current government to use agencies as political weapons. If somebody is not doing what they want politically, across the board, they feel they can use the CBI and the ED to pressurize them, to threaten them, to hurt them. This is something that it's not only Mr. Farooq Abdullah, but many, many, many people are facing. I am personally facing this assault. I have a number of cases against me and there are many leaders who are facing this assault. This is tragic because it is going to destroy these institutions. These institutions are designed to give justice to the people of India. They are not designed to be political instruments. So I do not appreciate using CBI and ED to do your political work. They are India's instruments. They are not personal instruments of the Prime Minister and they should be treated as such. One of the former chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Mr. Ramana, has made a remark against the American Navy while speaking in a memo after a meeting. How did you see his statement? Because the BJP is also alleging that... I'll tell you my view on this. I will stop from going to Hathras by the government of Uttar Pradesh because a young girl was raped and killed. I think one cannot treat women with disrespect. One cannot, Kamal Naji is from my party, but I don't like personally the type of language that Kamal Naji has used. And I don't appreciate it. I think it's unfortunate. But as a general statement, I think that our treatment of women in this country at all levels has a lot to be improved. There's a lot to be improved, whether it is in the law and order, whether it is in just basic respect, whether it is in how much space they are accorded in business, in government, in other areas. I think our women are at pride. I think they should be protected. And I don't appreciate this type of language, regardless of who's using it. Even your good old friend from India has said that Congress never respects women. How do you feel about that? Because you are not there with you. Please take a look at our record. Take a look at our record right from the freedom struggle. We are not, our record is pretty clear, it's open. And in fact, I've just made a statement here against something that one of our leaders has made. I don't think Mr. Sindhya or anybody else would make this type of statement about his leadership. And as I believe Kamal Jha Nachi has already said that his statement was unfortunate. Last day, leader of the National Committee, the Well, our position on that is pretty clear. We've made it very, very clear. We believe that uniting the people of India is what strengthens this country. We believe that all people should be brought together. All people should be respected. And we feel that when you divide the people of this country, like the BJP does, you strengthen our opponents. BJP needs to reflect on why the Chinese have the power to be sitting inside Indian territory today. The Chinese have taken more than 1200 square kilometers of Indian territory. The BJP needs to think about why, what is given the Chinese this strength. I'll tell you what is given the Chinese this strength. Chinese have got this strength to sit inside India because the BJP has destroyed India's economy, because they have mishandled COVID, because at every opportunity they divide this country, because they take decisions without asking the people of this country. And that is why we have a foreign power occupying 1200 square kilometers of island. And we have our Prime Minister lying to our nation about this occupation. The Prime Minister himself said, and this is a lie, that nobody has taken any land from this country. The army is negotiating with the Chinese. The army believes otherwise. The defence ministry believes otherwise. But the Prime Minister is not able to face the reality that his misgovernance, his incompetence, has allowed the foreign power to take over 1200 square kilometers of our country. And one of the big reasons this is happening is because everywhere the Prime Minister goes, everywhere he goes, he weakens this country's basic structure. When you crush the press, when you take over institutions, when you incite people against each other, you are weakening India. It is very important that every Indian understands this. That when we are united, we are strong. When we are united, nobody can challenge us. When we are divided, when we are fighting amongst each other, we are weak. And then you will have things like what are happening, what is happening currently. I think we have, last question, let me go. What do I expect? I am not a soothsayer. I don't have the ability to predict these types of things. But I can say that the real challenge is in front of the country. I mean what I would like to hear from the Prime Minister is when the Chinese are going to leave Indian territory. This is shocking to me. I don't think there is any other country in the world today where a foreign power can take 1200 square kilometers of the country. And there is no answer from the leadership. Even if there is no country in the world where if that territory is taken, the Prime Minister can simply say it never happened. So what I would like the Prime Minister to tell us, the nation, is when the Chinese are going to be thrown out of Indian territory. What is the debt by which the Chinese soothsayer are going to be kicked out of India? That is what I want to know. But I guarantee you the Prime Minister won't have the guts to say that. I will tell you right now that the Prime Minister will not say one word about the Chinese. He will not be able to say the word China. Let's see if I know. Thank you.