- Wednesday, May 01, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
EIGHT people were killed on Sunday (3) after violence broke out after a car hit protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Angry crowd set two vehicles ablaze and intensified their protests. The incident also took a political colour as several opposition leaders alleged that the voice of the farmers was being muzzled.
A number of opposition leaders were stopped from reaching the site and top Congress leaders like Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the party’s general secretary, and parliamentarian Deepender Hooda and former UP chief minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav were detained early on Monday (4) when they tried to meet members of the families of the deceased. Aam Aadmi Party parliamentarian Sanjay Singh was also stopped. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi addressing sister Priyanka saying the opponents feared her courage and his party would ensure that the nation’s ‘rice givers’ win the “non-violent fight for justice”.
प्रियंका, मैं जानता हूँ तुम पीछे नहीं हटोगी- तुम्हारी हिम्मत से वे डर गए हैं।
न्याय की इस अहिंसक लड़ाई में हम देश के अन्नदाता को जिता कर रहेंगे। #NoFear #लखीमपुर_किसान_नरसंहार
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 4, 2021
Vadra also tweeted accusing the BJP government of doing politics of crushing the farmers.
भाजपा सरकार किसानों को कुचलने की राजनीति कर रही है, किसानों को खत्म करने की राजनीति कर रही है। pic.twitter.com/51R5Kmt41B
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) October 4, 2021
The violent incident was reported minutes before UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya was to visit the area, according to one official source. Four farmers were killed after allegedly getting hit by a convoy and four who were travelling in one of the vehicles were beaten to death, the unidentified official source revealed.
The farmers had gathered in Tikonia in the district to protest Maurya’s visit to Banbirpur, the home town of Ajay Mishra, the Narendra Modi government’s minister of state for home and the local parliamentarian. The farmers claimed that Mishra’s son was in one of the vehicles that rammed into them, a charge which was denied by both Mishra and his son.
Northern states like UP, Punjab and Haryana are witnessing strong protests by the farmers against three controversial new agricultural laws of the Modi government. Of them, UP and Haryana are governed by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella group of farmers’ unions spearheading the agitation, has called for protests outside the offices of the district magistrates and divisional commissioners across India on Monday over the incident. It also sought a probe into the incident by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court of India and not by the administration of UP. The SKM has also written to Indian president Ram Nath Kovind seeking action against the culprits.
Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union said the farmers were attacked when they were returning home after staging a protest against the farm laws. He alleged that the people in the convoy even fired at the farmers. Tikait headed to the spot late on Sunday.
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who will seek re-election next year, said his government will conduct an in-depth probe into the incident and expose those behind it. He also called the incident unfortunate, according to a statement from his office.
