Farmers Movement Archive

Rahul Gandhi attacks Centre over no data on farmer deaths during agitation

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the Union government, calling it “arrogant” for admitting in Parliament that it had no official record of the number of farmers who died during their year-long agitation against the now-repealed three central farm laws. Claiming that he has a list of 700-odd farmers who died during their agitation, Gandhi said he will submit the list in Parliament on Monday.“The Centre said that the ministry of agriculture has no record of these 700 martyred farmers. But we did some homework and as it turns out, there are 403 people who the government of Punjab has compensated ₹5 lakh (each) with... Why doesn’t the Government of India have the decency to give compensation to the families of the martyred?” Gandhi said, while addressing a press conference, adding if the government could not get the names of dead farmers it could refer to the Congress’s list and provide the families with ex gratia.The Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad said, “The Prime Minister admitted his mistake and apologised to the nation. As a result of that “mistake”, 700 people have died. The government should at least pay compensation for the sacrifices they (farmers) made.”Besides the list of 403 deceased farmers in Punjab, he said, the Congress has a list of 100 farmers from outside Punjab who died during the agitation and another list of about 200 deceased farmers has been compiled based on public records.Later in the day, Gandhi tweeted in Hindi, “Modi ji only has the numbers of his industrialist friends. We have the names and numbers of the farmers who died during the agitation.”In a written reply to the Lok Sabha on December 1 during the ongoing winter session, Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the government did not have any record of farmers who died during the protest and therefore there was no question of compensation to the families. This is the second time the Union government has informed Parliament it had no information on farmers’ death at various protest sites. During the monsoon session too, held in July and August, the government said it had no data.“What is the big issue in paying compensation to these people? We are doing it. The Punjab government had nothing to do with the death of these farmers. But it has paid ₹5 lakh to each victim’s families,” the former Congress president said.“They are today facing an environment, where there is huge joblessness. You have not let them work for one year. You have taken away their livelihood, now you are saying to them, you don’t exist,” Gandhi added.Union minister Tomar brushed aside the Congress leader’s allegations, saying “even Congressmen don’t believe in Rahul Gandhi’s statements”.

Hindustan Times

04-12-2021

India