Opposition leaders stopped from meeting killed MP farmers' kin

Senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh and Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav were on Thursday stopped from meeting the families of five farmers killed in agitation in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur district

The opposition leaders, who reached Neemuch, near Mandsaur, said "the farmers' protest was an infighting among RSS workers".

Kamal Nath said the state government did not allow them to meet the relatives of the farmers who were killed in the police firing on Tuesday.

"You can see that we are not in huge numbers as only three of us are here. Even the party workers are not here, so they (government authorities) should not explain to us the meaning of Section 144 (of CrPC). It doesn't apply to three people. Under which law are they stopping us," Nath said.

JD-U leader Sharad Yadav said: "We have come here here just to meet the families of the deceased farmers and the farmers who were injured in the police firing."

"But they didn't allow us to go and meet them and said that Section 144 was imposed in the area. We even requested them to take us in their vehicles but they refused to do so," Yadav added.

"This government is acting foolishly. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan must resign," said former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digivijaya ingh.

He also said that the Congress and JD-U leaders didn't go to Mandsaur to ignite tension. "We have come here to ease the tension and not to ignite it. We have come to talk to the farmers and make them understand," Singh said.

He also alleged that the farmers protests in the state were due to infighting among the Sangh workers.

"The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh are both wings of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. It is clearly an infighting of the Sangh and not a fight of the farmers. We (Congress) have fought for the rights of the farmers," Singh said.

Hitting out at Chouhan, Singh said, "Shivraj had promised farmers 1.5 times return on the yield of crops. He should implement that. Why hasn't he implemented his own promise?"

--IANS

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