Varun Gandhi shares clip of farmer setting crop afire, says ‘must rethink farm policy’
BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Saturday shared a video of a UP farmer purportedly setting fire to his paddy crop after being unable to sell it, and tweeted that “the need of the hour is to rethink (the) agriculture policy”.
“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?” Gandhi, who is a Lok Sabha MP from UP’s Pilibhit, asked on Twitter.
The video shows a man throwing kerosene onto the crop and setting it on fire, while some men try to stop him.
उत्तर प्रदेश के किसान श्री समोध सिंह पिछले 15 दिनों से अपनी धान की फसल को बेचने के लिए मंडियों में मारे-मारे फिर रहे थे, जब धान बिका नहीं तो निराश होकर इसमें स्वयं आग लगा दी।
इस व्यवस्था ने किसानों को कहाँ लाकर खड़ा कर दिया है? कृषि नीति पर पुनर्चिंतन आज की सबसे बड़ी ज़रूरत है। pic.twitter.com/z3EjYw9rIz
— Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) October 23, 2021
Much of the Terai is badly flooded. Donating dry rations by hand so that no family is hungry till this calamity ends. It’s painful that when the common man needs the system the most,he’s left to fend for himself.If every response is individual-led then what does ‘governance’ mean pic.twitter.com/P2wF7Tb431
— Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) October 21, 2021
Wise words from a big-hearted leader… pic.twitter.com/xlRtznjFAx
— Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) October 14, 2021
The video is crystal clear. Protestors cannot be silenced through murder. There has to be accountability for the innocent blood of farmers that has been spilled and justice must be delivered before a message of arrogance and cruelty enters the minds of every farmer. ???? pic.twitter.com/Z6NLCfuujK
— Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) October 7, 2021
Gandhi has often been critical of the government’s handling of agricultural matters, and has been vocal about his support for the farmers’ agitation. He along with his mother Maneka were recently dropped from the BJP’s new national executive committee, hours after he condemned the Lakhimpur Kheri violence of October 3 in which a BJP minister’s convoy allegedly ran over and killed four protesting farmers.
On Thursday he attacked the UP government asking that if the common man is left to fend for himself, what does governance mean? He had also written to UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath demanding compensation for farmers whose crops had been damaged in floods.
Last week, the Lok Sabha MP tweeted a clip of a speech by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1980, in which he warns the then Indira Gandhi government against repressing farmers.
Also read: Lessons not learned: Environmentalists on Uttarakhand, Kerala tragedies
