BHOPAL:
Congress president
Rahul Gandhi will come to the state on June 6 to pay homage to the farmers killed in police firing on the same day at
Mandsaur last year. “The AICC president will arrive at the Pipliya Mandi, where six farmers were killed in the police firing last year. The farmers were demanding fair price for their produce,” said state Congress media committee chairman Manak Agarwal.
“He will pay tribute on the first anniversary of farmers, who lost their lives in the firing. The entire agrarian community of Mandsaur and adjoining districts will be present along with farmers’ associations from across the country. Families of victim farmer, killed during the protest, will also be present,” Agarwal said. The function, however, will not be under the Congress’s banner since 190 farmers’ organisations will gather at Pipliya Mandi in Mandsaur to pay tribute to slain farmers. These farmer organisations, however, would share dais with Rahul Gandhi.
With this programme held five months before the assembly elections, Congress will thereafter, launch a state-wide movement for farmers raising issues of agrarian suicides, police atrocities against farmers in Mandsaur and later Tikamgarh, where protesting farmers were allegedly stripped and beaten, grievance over
Bhavantar and non-implementation of minimum support price for acquisition of grains. Congress will also demand waiving off farm loans in the state.
The Congress’s movement for farmers will start, when the agrarian unions of five states will hold their own strike from June 1. Farmers' associations in Madhya Pradesh led by the
Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and
Madhya Pradesh Kisan Mazdoor Sangh will be on a ten-day strike along with farmers of Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra and election-bound Rajasthan. Farmers in these states will observe “gram bandi” meaning they will not permit a single grain or vegetable to move outside the village. Their demands are implementation of the recommendations of the
Swaminathan Committee 2006, including total waiving off of agrarian loans and electricity dues in addition to the increase in the MSP.
Minister for water resources and state government spokesman
Narottam Mishra on Tuesday said that the government will try and resolve farmers’ issues through dialogue. But Congress has bigger plans. It wants to join the farmers’ agitation at every district and block level to make it an agrarian movement against the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, where 70% of the vote-bank is directly linked to the agrarian sector. And additional 10% votes are from the agriculture allied sectors.
Last year after the police firing incident, erstwhile AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi was arrested by the police on June 8, when he tried to break curfew and meet victims’ families.