Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party targeted Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's statements related to the happenings in Bhatta-Parsaul in Uttar Pradesh, saying they “lacked credibility,” senior party leader and campaign-in-charge in Lucknow Kalraj Mishra claimed to have “confirmed information” of thousands of people still missing and “unconfirmed information” that as many as 35 people, including 6 women, had died as a result of police action on agitating farmers.
Party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain took Mr. Gandhi to task for “defaming” the women in the U.P. villages.
“To say that women were raped when they were not is to dishonour them,” he said. “While U.P. Chief Minister Mayawati was wounding farmers, Mr. Gandhi was sprinkling salt on their wounds.”
Asked whether he supported the demand for a judicial or CBI probe to establish the truth, Mr. Hussain said he would prefer an inquiry by a parliamentary delegation, saying his party did not want to play politics on the issue.
Mr. Mishra, however, told The Hindu that in Bhatta, nearly 2,500 electors were missing and in Parsaul, as many as 3,000 of a total electorate of 5,500 were missing. “I also have information, although unconfirmed, that as many as 35 people died as a result of the police action last week.”
Mr. Hussain stopped short of saying that Mr. Gandhi had inflated the police action toll and the truth was closer to the claim, made by the Mayawati government, that a few persons — four, officially — were killed in the police firing.
The party here charged Mr. Gandhi with not understanding rural India. It said, patronisingly, that it understood his desire to visit villages to learn and understand what life was all about in rural India.
The BJP suggested that a pro-farmer land acquisition Bill be enacted, and said the party had always taken up issues on behalf of farmers and would continue to do so.
