Farmers in the district staged a demonstration against the incident in Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh and held Prime Minister Narendra Modi accountable for the developments in which eight people including four farmers, were killed on Sunday.
Violence broke out during a farmers’ protest when a convoy of Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra ploughed into the farmers’ rally which allegedly left four farmers dead. In the ensuing violence, four other people were also killed. Nationwide protests were held on Monday.
Badgalpura Nagendra of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha said the incident was part of a larger conspiracy to break the farmers’ movement against the farm laws that was going on peacefully for the last 10 months.
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“We hold Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for the incident and he should apologse immediately,” said Mr. Nagendra. The violence was instigated to besmirch the fair name of the farmers who have been peacefully protesting and any effort to throttle the democratic right of staging demonstrations would be strongly resisted, he said.
The U.P. government’s decision banning the visit by Opposition party leaders to Lakhimpur Kheri, was also condemned by the KRRS. The Minister of State for Home Affairs should be sacked and the PM should immediately apologise, said Mr. Nagendra. Kurubur Shanthakumar of Karnataka Sugarcane Cultivators’ Association said the BJP was intoxicated with power. He warned that people would give a befitting reply to such tactics and wanted the accused responsible for the death of the farmers to be nabbed and prosecuted.