Varun Gandhi shares clip of Vajpayee supporting farmers’ rights

MP Varun Gandhi has a message for his BJP bosses, who expelled him from the party’s national executive this month after he called for justice for the families of farmers killed in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri, and spoke out in support of those protesting the Centre’s controversial farm laws:

In a Twitter post on Thursday, Varun Gandhi shared a short clip of a speech of BJP titan and 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…” the tweet read.

In the clip, Vajpayee is heard telling a gathering that farmers cannot be scared off. “If the government suppresses [farmers], misuses laws and represses a peaceful agitation, then we will not shy away from joining the farmers’ struggle and standing with them,” he says.

Also read: The politics behind the Lakhimpur violence and its huge cost 

Gandhi has sought stringent action against those responsible for the death of four farmers after vehicles allegedly linked to BJP leaders ran over them in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri. 

He was recently dropped from the BJP national executive in what was seen as an indication of the party leadership’s unhappiness with the Pilibhit MP.

Gandhi is also the only BJP member so far to speak up on the Lakhimpur Kheri issue, in which Ashish Mishra, the son of junior home minister Ajay Mishra, is accused of murdering the four farmers.

The MP has not only demanded “accountability” but also wrote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to demand a CBI probe and ₹1 crore compensation for the dead farmers’ families.

Last week he tweeted a video of the black SUV ploughing through a group of peaceful protesters from behind, tagging it “murder” and saying that the video was enough to “shake the soul”.