Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh was calm on Thursday, two days after police shot dead five protesting farmers, but Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to meet the deceased farmers’ kin raised political temperature in the State. Gandhi was arrested along with 29 other leaders, including Janata Dal(U)’s Sharad Yadav when they entered the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh but were later released on personal bonds. They were taken to the guesthouse of a cement company, a police official said.
The Congress leader then met some farmers and expressed solidarity with them.
After being prevented from entering violence-hit Mandsaur, Gandhi accused the Narendra Modi Government of favouring the rich and giving farmers “only bullets”. After Gandhi got bail, the curfew imposed on Tuesday evening was released in the area for two hours from 4 pm.
“Modi waived off loans worth Rs 1,50,000 crore for the richest people in India,” Gandhi said, “But they can’t pay the right price to farmers for their produce, they can’t give compensation either. They can give only bullets.”
Asked who was responsible for the killing of the five farmers on Tuesday, Gandhi said, “(Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and (Madhya Pradesh) Chief Minister (Shivraj Singh Chouhan)”.
There was high drama as the police tried to stop what had turned into a rally of sorts with Gandhi leading from the front. When police tried to push him back, he ran into a field nearby from where he was detained.
Surging crowds of Congress supporters followed him, shouting slogans like “Jai Jawaan, Jai Kisaan” and “Rahul Gandhi zindabad”.
Police tried to stop them saying there was curfew in Mandsaur. At this, Digvijay Singh and Kamal Nath protested, saying they wanted to go there to restore peace but were being stopped.