The farmer movement in Madhya Pradesh moved into high political gear on Thursday as Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and other senior party leaders were arrested by the police for violating section 144, said additional director general of police V Madhu Kumar.
Rahul gandhi and other Congress leaders tried to make their way to Mandsaur, ground zero of the protests. 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, about 400 km from the state capital Bhopal.
Gandhi, along with JDU leader Sharad Yaadav and Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and Kamal Nath, were kept at Vikram Tent House, which was converted into a temporary jail, in Nayagaon.
“I squarely blame Modi and the chief minister (Shivraj Singh Chouhan for the killing of farmers),” Gandhi told reporters, before being whisked away by the police.
“I just want to meet the farmers. If your ideology is not that of the RSS, you are not allowed to enter Madhya Pradesh,” Rahul Gandhi told reporters after his detention. “Modiji has waived loans of big corporate houses but he can give only goli (bullets) to farmers of the country,” the Congress leader said.
“It was investigated and proved that the death of farmers happened because of police firing. Initially, the details provided to me were that police firing did not cause the death of farmers. However, I later amended my statement as soon as I received the right information,” Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupendra Singh said.
Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu accused the Congress of instigating and politicising farmers’ stir in Madhya Pradesh and termed Rahul Gandhi’s planned visit to the violence-hit Mandsaur as “another photo opportunity”.
Naidu’s comments came shortly after the Congress vice president was detained in Neemuch by police for defying ban orders imposed in the violence-hit Mandsaur district where he wished to go in order to meet the grieving families of farmers had who lost their lives in the police firing.
The Congress leader was taken into preventive custody by the local authorities and rushed to an undisclosed location. He has been formally arrested and charged under Section 151.
Meanwhile, MP CM Shivraj Singh took to Twitter and assured that his government will continue to work for the welfare of farmers as long as he is alive.
