Rahul joins TN farmers at Jantar Mantar

First time since facing rout in UP elections, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi returned to action. Without making any announcement, he headed to Jantar Mantar to sit with drought hit farmers of Tamil Nadu, who are holding up at Hyde Park, just a kilometre away from Parliament House, demanding a relief package.  

At the venue, Rahul accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ‘disrespecting’ the drought-hit farmers by not initiating talks with them over their demands. The farmers have been protesting at the venue for past 18 days.

Using the occasion, he also accused  the government of being “anti-poor and anti-farmers”. He alleged, the government was  only pandering to the demands of a select group of industrialists. “The farmers have been sitting here for so long. But neither the government nor the Prime Minister is listening to them. The people and farmers of Tamil Nadu deserve to be heard by the PM who is disrespecting them by not initiating any dialogue. Over the last three years, debt worth Rs 1.4 lakh crore held by 50 industrialists have been written off,” he said.

“Why the same is not being done in case of the farmers? Why are their debts have not being waived? It is the PM’s responsibility to do so,” he  added after interacting with the protesters. He assured the farmers that the Congress will ‘fight for them’ and raise their grievances “in Tamil Nadu as well as in Delhi and the Parliament”.  

He was accompanied by Tamil Nadu Congress chief Su Thirunavukkarasar and senior party leader Mani Shankar Aiyar.