The death of six farmers in police action during a farmers’ agitation in Mandsaur of Madhya Pradesh early in June emerged as a key theme in the discussion on the agrarian situation in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, with Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia attacking the State government and Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar mounting a stout defence of it.
“You were not voted to power to shoot farmers. When the government kills instead of protecting, where is democracy,” asked Mr. Scindia, initiating the discussion.
Claiming that 65 farmers committed suicide in the State in a month, Mr. Scindia asserted that no minister went to visit them.
“The Prime Minister tweets on every global calamity. But there was no tweet on Mandsaur. The Union Agriculture Minister did not go to Mandsaur. But he has the time to do yoga with Baba Ramdev,” Mr. Scindia said.
Tomar stance
Speaking some time after Mr. Scindia, Mr. Tomar hailed the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government as the “most pro-farmer government in India”. “Due to certain circumstances, prices for crops fell below expectations. Farmers came out to agitate but upon having their grievances addressed by Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan they had full faith that things would improve and withdrew,” he said. “Some politicians not getting political traction anywhere decided to stoke violence.”