Kolkata: “Minister Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’ should be arrested, after that he will have to resign also. Then only the Lekhimpur Kheri victims will get justice,” said Yogendra Yadav, a farmer leader in Kolkata.
Yadav who is touring Bengal to campaign for Jai Kisan Andolan further said, “Otherwise, Teni being minister, it is impossible that in this matter, even his son being arrested, farmers will get justice. And how it is possible that a minister, whose portfolio is looking after law and order. It is the minister who had threatened and provoked farmers. He had also shown thumbs down sign to anger farmers, so he is responsible for everything.”
Significantly, when Yadav was speaking about the Lekhimpur Kheri incident, in which Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra had allegedly mowed down farmers on October 3, at the same time Supreme Court formed a judicial probe headed by Retired judge Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain as the court expressed its dissatisfaction on the work of Uttar Pradesh police so far.
Yadav’s Swaraj India is part of Samyukta Kisan Morcha, which is protesting against three farm laws for almost a year now across India. After the Lekhimpur Kheri case, in which eight people were killed, Yadav had visited a victim, who happens to be a BJP worker, and SKM leaders expressed unhappiness over it, as the Swaraj India leader had not discussed his visit before the meeting. SKM had later suspended Yadav till November 21.
While today Yadav and other Jai Kisan Andolan leaders including Avik Saha, Deepak Lamba held a press conference and talked about their three-day Maha Panchayat in Bengal.
The farmer leader mentioned that through Jai Kisan Andolan, they are not only making aware farmers about their rights and training them for future movements, but also raising minimum support price (MSP) demand for them by respective state governments.
“We are raising this issue everywhere, be it BJP ruled state or non-BJP. In non-BJP states, who claim that they have sympathy with the farmers and stand with them, I say to them, your words are beautiful but without ensuring MSP, all are meaningless,” he said.
Yadav pointed out that both Bengal and Rajasthan are not giving MSP to their farmers, while the chief ministers of these states Mamata Banerjee and Ashok Gehlot often say that they are with farmers.
