New Delhi: Days after he criticised the government with his condemnation of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident and sought strict action against those involved, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi on Saturday yet again voiced his support for the farmers and said the need of the hour is to rethink the agriculture policy.
The Pilibhit MP shared on Twitter a video of a farmer from Uttar Pradesh purportedly setting fire to his paddy crop after being unable to sell it.
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“A farmer from Uttar Pradesh, Mr Samodh Singh, was going around in the mandis to sell his paddy crop for the last 15 days. When the paddy was not sold, disappointed, he set the crop on fire. What has this system reduced the farmers to? The need of the hour is to rethink agriculture policy,” he tweeted in Hindi.
The video, shared by the BJP MP, shows a man throwing kerosene onto the crop and setting it on fire, while some men try to stop him.
Speaking in Bareilly later, Gandhi categorically stated that the Central government should accept the farmers’ demands.
“I haven't done any corruption but there are leaders, who take money from police, mining...I haven't taken my MP salary, government house... Public has given me power not to uplift myself but to uplift public and their issues,” he added, ANI reported.
Earlier this month, the Pilibhit MP and his mother Maneka Gandhi were left out of the party’s newly announced new national executive committee.
This came hours after he called for justice for the families of the farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri earlier on October 3.
The BJP MP, who has been vocal in empathising with the farmers agitating against the three farm laws enacted by the Centre, had earlier last week tweeted a short clip of a speech of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1980 in which he warns the then Indira Gandhi government against repressing farmers and extends his support to them.
“Wise words from a big-hearted leader…,” he tweeted earlier on October 13.