Rahul plans to visit violence-hit district

MP ADMINISTRATION DENIED RAHUL PERMIT AND SAID THEY WON’T ALLOW ANY OUTSIDER TO VISIT MANDSAUR

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has planned a visit to violence-hit Mandsaur— where five farmers were killed allegedly in police firing— on Thursday.

Accompanied by Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav and Congress general secretary Kamal Nath, Gandhi will first go to Udaipur in Rajasthan from where he will try to reach Mandsaur by road to express solidarity with the victims’ families.

Gandhi was on Wednesday denied permission by the Madhya Pradesh government to visit the region and it is unlikely that the administration will allow him to proceed to the troubled area. “We will not allow any outsider in Mandsaur,” said district collector Swantanter Kumar Singh when asked about Gandhi's visit. “The area is under curfew.”

The Congress refuted reports that Gandhi was visiting Mandsaur to join farmers’ protest.

“Canards and rumours were spread that Rahul Gandhi wanted to go there to participate in the protests. There was never any such plan,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters.

He attacked the BJP for the five farmers’ deaths and also questioned PM Narendra Modi’s “silence” on the issue. However, the party stopped short of demanding chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s resignation.

“BJP has almost been acting like a curse of death for farmers. Distressed farmers are viewed by heartless BJP as fodder. On the one hand farmers are toiling and on the other the BJP is killing the sons of the soil,” he said.

The Opposition has also decided to a call a meeting of different farmers’ organisations in a bid to unite them and put pressure on the BJP government to waive off crop loans and fix the MSP at 50% profit margin.