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  India   Rahul Gandhi set to march in support of Uttar Pradesh farmers

Rahul Gandhi set to march in support of Uttar Pradesh farmers

Published : Nov 21, 2015, 1:57 am IST
Updated : Nov 21, 2015, 1:57 am IST

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will hold a march in support of sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will hold a march in support of sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh.

Mr Gandhi will march through Nakud Assembly segment in Saharanpur next week. The region has a defunct sugar mill and a dense population of sugar cane farmers.

Mr Gandhi’s padyatra — the second since his march from Bhatta-Parsaul to Aligarh in 2011 — is being held at a time when the UP government is yet to announce the minimum support price of sugarcane and sugar mills have not even declared the date for the crushing season.

Moreover, the state government has already declared 50 of its 75 districts as drought-hit.

The current year, in any case, has been one of the worst for agriculturists in the state. Untimely rains in March, followed by drought like condition and an inadequate monsoon have created a no-win situation for farmers.

Mr Gandhi apparently wants to reach out to farmers and inform them that it was his party that blocked the proposed amendments by the Modi government in the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

The padyatra is also Mr Gandhi’s emphatic assertion that the Congress would continue and even intensify its fight for the poor, the marginalised and the farmers, in particular.

With the Nakud padyatra, Mr Gandhi’s support to farmers, which began with the Bhatta Parsaul incident in 2011 in which the police opened fire on agitating farmers in the Mayawati regime, comes a full circle.

A senior UPCC leader said Mr Gandhi’s decision to take out a padyatra came after a delegation of farmers contacted his office and apprised them of their plight, which includes non-payment of cane dues and delayed onset of crushing season.

The farmers blamed the Akhilesh government for being indifferent to their woes and sought Mr Gandhi’s support.

“Mr Gandhi on Thursday has given a clear indication of his aggressive posture in the coming months. He is going to go all out against the misrule of the government at the centre and in the state and this is going to mobilise party workers in a big way. After all, with about 40 MPs, Mr Gandhi forced the BJP to backtrack on the land acquisition bill,” the leader said.

Mr Gandhi’s padyatra is also a warning bell for the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) — once a Congress ally — since the Congress is now making a concerted effort to reach out to Jats in the region that was once considered a RLD bastion. Despite the problems being faced by farmers, the RLD has not taken any visible steps to fight for the farmers.

Location: India, Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow