In a move that showed his deep disenchantment with his party, BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Monday dropped the BJP’s tag from his Twitter bio and wrote a strong-worded letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath demanding that a murder case under IPC section 302 should be lodged against those involved in the death of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Even as RSS-affiliated Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) alleged that people involved in the Sunday incident were “not farmers” and belonged to “various political parties”, possibly “leftist”, Varun sought a CBI enquiry in the case in a time-bound manner and `1 crore compensation to the family members of deceased farmers.
Varun’s decision to drop the BJP from his twitter bio is in line with similar moves made by several recent defectors like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada. Both had removed reference to the Congress from their twitter bio before deserting the Congress. Political circles are abuzz with talks that either Varun may leave the BJP or the BJP may show him the door.
Nine people were killed — four farmers allegedly run over and four people in a convoy of BJP workers who were lynched — on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers’ protest in Lakhimpur Kheri district
in UP.
While removing the BJP tag from his twitter bio, Varun tweeted , “I pay homage to the farmers who were martyred in the heart-wrenching incident of Lakhimpur Kheri. I request the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh to take strict action in this matter”.
In his letter to the CM, Varun said there is pain and anger in the whole country due to the brutal incident of crushing of farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 3.
“The way our annadatta were crushed to death is unforgivable in a civilized society,” he said.
Gandhi who termed the incident as “heart-wrenching” said that the “agitating farmer brothers are our own citizens”.
“We should deal with them with great restraint and patience. In any case, we should treat our farmers with sensitivity and only in Gandhian and democratic way within the ambit of law,” he said.
The letter also demanded a CBI probe under SC supervision.
Incidentally, Varun on October 2 castigated those who wrote Godse Zindabad. In his tweet, he wrote: India has always been a spiritual superpower, but it is the Mahatama who articulated our nation’s spiritual underpinnings through his being and gave us a moral authority that remains our greatest strength even today. Those tweeting Godse Zindabad are irresponsibly shaming the country.
Meanwhile, seeking the harshest punishment for those involved in the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri in UP, the RSS-affiliated farmer union BKS said people from various political parties, and not farmers, were behind it.
Describing the incident as “unfortunate”, the BKS in a statement said, “The people involved in the incident were not farmers, they belonged to various political parties. The incident was carried out using leftist methods. People were mercilessly beaten to death with sticks, something farmers cannot do.”
The BKS claimed that the way the people took the law into their own hands and committed murders in public shows that they were part of some professional gangs.
Seeking the harshest punishment for those involved in such acts, it said that justice should be done to the families of the deceased by conducting an impartial inquiry into this heinous incident at the earliest.
