New Delhi: Launching a vitriolic attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said the shocking incident at Lakhimpur Kheri recently betrays the mindset of the ruling party and how it has been dealing with this determined struggle by the farmers to protect their lives and livelihoods.
Gandhi said it has been over a year since the “teen kaale kanoon” were bulldozed through Parliament.
“We are meeting in the background of the continuing agitation by farmers’ and farmers organisations. It has been over a year since the ‘teen kaale kanoon’ were bulldozed through Parliament. We had done our best to have them subjected to legislative scrutiny but the Modi Government was hell bent on getting them passed so that a few private companies could benefit,” Gandhi said in her opening remarks at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting.
“Farmers began their protests immediately and have suffered much since then. The shocking incidents at Lakhimpur-Kheri recently betrays the mindset of the BJP, how it perceives the Kisan Andolan, how it has been dealing with this determined struggle by Kisans to protect their lives and livelihoods,” she added, ANI reported.
Gandhi’s remarks come days after a high-level delegation of Congress leaders met President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here and demanded immediate dismissal of Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Kumar Mishra over the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.
The delegation, including former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, demanded an impartial judicial probe by two sitting Supreme Court judges.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence on Thursday took the Union Minister’s son Ashish Mishra and three others arrested in connection with the case to recreate the sequence of events leading to the incident.
Ashish Mishra, the main accused, and the others arrested were taken amid tight security to the Tikonia-Banbirpur road where the incident took place.
Ankit Das, Shekhar Bharti and Latif alias Kale are the three others arrested in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case.
Earlier on October 3, violence erupted in Lakhimpur Kheri after two SUVs allegedly ran over a group of anti-farm law protesters, who were demonstrating against the visit of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya at Tikonia-Banbirpur road.
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Eight people, including four farmers, were killed in the incident.
The farmer leaders have alleged that Ashish Mishra was in one of the SUVs, which allegedly ran over the protesters. This allegation has, however, been denied by the Union Minister and his son.