“He (Modi) can’t give the right rates for farmers’ agriculture produce, can’t give them bonus, can’t give them compensation… He can only give them GOLI (bullets),” Gandhi told media persons.
Neemuch, (MP)
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was today managed to meet relatives of six farmers killed in firing in Mandsour in Madhya Pradesh despite local government resisted his move. The Congress leader was placed under arrest in Nayagaon village while attempting to enter strife-torn Mandsaur district and refused to be released on bail.
The police moved in to stop Gandhi as he defied elaborate security arrangements and tried to force his way into the state from Naya Gaon in Neemuch in Rajasthan, about 400 kms from state capital Bhopal.
He was released here on submission of a personal bond that he filled after an assurance that he would be permitted to meet the kin.
Mr Gandhi was accompanied by Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh, former Union minister Kamal Nath, the Madhya Pradesh Assembly’s Leader of the Opposition Ajay Singh, the party’s Rajasthan unit president Sachin Pilot and Janata Dal (United) chief Sharad Yadav.
Just before he was detained by the police, the Congress vice president accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of waiving loans of the country’s rich while ignoring farmers’ debts.
“He (Modi) can’t give the right rates for farmers’ agriculture produce, can’t give them bonus, can’t give them compensation… He can only give them bullets,” Gandhi said.
The Congress had yesterday described as “cold-blooded murder” the killing of the five farmers and questioned the prime minister’s silence on it.
Meanwhile The Congress party has condemned the detention of party vice president Rahul Gandhi while he was on his way to violence-hit Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh and said it reveals the cowardice of the Modi government.
“The arrest of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi by Madhya Pradesh police on his way to visit the victims of police violence at Mandasaur is highly condemnable.
“The arrest of Rahul Gandhi and other senior Congress leaders reveals the political cowardliness of the Modi government,” AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said.
He said the Congress vice president was supposed to visit the relatives of farmers who lost their lives in police firing, to register his moral support to the farmers’ agitation and ensure justice to the deceased.
Instead of meeting the demands of agitating farmers, the state government with the full support of central government is even trying to silence the voices of opposition leaders who stood for the farmers, he said.