MP farmers’ stir threatens to spread, troops rushed in
PM Modi chairs highlevel meet; Rahul set to visit today
MANDSAUR/BHOPAL: A farmers’ agitation demanding loan waivers and higher crop prices in Madhya Pradesh spread to large parts of the state on Wednesday with protesters torching vehicles, targeting police stations and attacking government officials.
The flare-up occurred a day after five farmers were killed in police firing in Mandsaur, where district collector Swatantra Kumar Singh was heckled and assaulted on Wednesday when he was trying to pacify farmers blockading a highway.
As the BJP-ruled state grappled to contain the situation, the Centre rushed five battalions of paramilitary forces. Six battalions had been sent on Tuesday.
The farmers’ uprising in Madhya Pradesh, as well as neighbouring Maharashtra over similar demands, poses a big challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who stormed to power three years ago with the promise of freeing farmers of a cycle of debts.
Farmers in Rajasthan, another BJP-ruled state, also announced a strike from next week over the same demands even as the party’s ally in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena, skipped a cabinet meeting called by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis over the farmers’ issue.
Information and broadcasting minister M Venkaiah Naidu, however, accused the Congress of instigating the violence in Mandsaur. “Congress is trying to give it a political twist. I only want to tell them not to politicise the issue...because it will boomerang on you,” Naidu said in Delhi
The MP government denied permission to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi to visit curfew-bound Mandsaur on Wednesday. The party said he is likely to reach the district on Thursday accompanied by general secretary Kamal Nath and Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav.
Rattled by the widespread protests, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government said it was working on a crop-loan settlement scheme to waive interests of a section of around 6 lakh farmers, 30 percent of the state’s farming community.
“We are working on a formula. This is not a loan-waiver scheme but interest is likely to be waived. We would come out with details later,” minister Archana Chitnis said after attending a meeting chaired byCM Chouhan.