Narendra or Devendra, both are ‘Thagendra’, says Sinha

Nagpur: Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis as ‘cheats’, the former Union finance minister Yeshwant Sinha on Tuesday launched an all-out attack on the government at the Centre and the state.
“Not Narendra or Devendra, they both are ‘Thagendra’ (cheats),” thundered Yeshwant Sinha, who quit the BJP some time ago to launch Rashtriya Manch, a non-political social movement.

The elder politician accused chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of not fulfilling any of the assurances he had given in writing 10 months ago at the end of four-day fast undertaken at Akola to pursue farmers’ demands. “I was forced to come here again to remind Fadnavis of the deception,” Sinha said addressing a moderate gathering of cotton, soyabean and paddy growers of Vidarbha.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh and Priti Menon, Samajwadi Party national spokesman Ghanshyam Tiwari, former Gujarat minister Pravinsinh Jadeja, farmers’ leaders Sharvari Tupkar and Tina Deshmukh were present besides cinestar and rebellious BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha who was the main attraction.

Ashish Deshmukh, who recently quit as BJP MLA to join the Congress, also got an applause when he stated that he quit the BJP to be on the farmers’ side.

After the farmers’ convention ended at Swarajya Bhavan grounds, a farmers’ march led by Yeshwant Sinha proceeded to the district collector’s office. However, a stand-off ensued for a couple of hours as collector Astikkumar Pandey reportedly did not allow the farmers’ march to enter the heavily barricaded collectorate compound using police force.

Later, Pandey came out of the office and sat outside with the agitating Sinha and other farm leaders to discuss the issues raised by them. The stand-off created tension as Sinha wanted the collector to meet him in his office and Pandey refused to do so. As both sides refused to budge, the stand-off continued and talks between the collector and the agitationists were on till filing of the report.

Deshmukh alleged that the district administration had tried hard to sabotage the farmers’ convention by using social media and warning people to stay away. Prohibitory orders were also clamped in parts of the city, Deshmukh claimed.