‘Your govt guns down people, you sit on fast’
Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday began a 72-hour satyagrah in Bhopal in support of farmers demanding a loan waiver and a higher price for their produce.
In a phone interview to Hindustan Times’s from Indore, the MP from Guna, who was arrested briefly on Tuesday and prevented from visiting violence-hit Mandsaur where five farmers were killed in police firing, said his protest was aimed at finding a solution to the problems facing farmers. Edited excerpts:
We need a platform for deliberations when there are several streams of thoughts and ideologies. For instance, if I am talking about media and don’t invite mediapersons for deliberations then how will I get suggestions? This is for deliberations with stakeholders and preparing an action plan. Such a major incident has happened (in Mandsaur). A government should protect people’s life but here the protector has turned into perpetrator (rakshak hi bhakshak ban gaya). long will it go on? When Sonia ji and Manmohan ji waived the loans of ₹72,000 crore, there was no demand and demonstration. Still they did it in the interest of the farming community and the country… 12,000 farmers are committing suicide every year. There are an alarming number of farmer suicides in Madhya Pradesh, too, but the government doesn’t want to redress farmer grievances. chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan but he launched a fast. The CM wasn’t sensitive enough to visit the families of those killed and apologise to them immediately after the incident. Instead he went on a fast. Apki sarkar logon ko goliyon se bhoon de, apki sarkar logon ko hospital pahuncha de aur aap upwaas par baith rahe ho...Ye kya ho raha hai? Mazak? (Your government is gunning down people, it is sending people to hospitals and you [Chouhan] sit on a fast...What is happening? Is it a joke?)