Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday sought to take the government for claiming that it does not have records of farmers who died during the protest against the now-repealed farm laws, saying when it "can do anything for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2-3 industrialist-friends", why can't it pay compensation to the "martyred" farmers.
In a tweet with hashtags "Farmers and HumanityFirst", he said, "Modi-Ji only has the numbers of his industrialist friends. We have the names and numbers of the farmers who died during the agitation. If you really want to apologise, then call these families, share their grief and provide compensation. The Congress government in Punjab did this out of humanity, even when it was not at fault."
At a press conference, Rahul accused Modi of being "insensitive, arrogant and cowardly" in not paying compensation to families of the farmers and said he would present a list of such farmers in Parliament on Monday.
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He said that the Congress-led Punjab government, which was "not responsible" for farmers' deaths, has provided Rs five lakh compensation to families of 403 farmers who died and jobs to 152. Congress has also collected a list of 100 from other states while other names are in the public domain and "so, there is a list".
"The Prime Minister himself has said that he has made a mistake. He has apologised...Well, as a result of that mistake, 700 people have died. Now, you are lying about their names, why? Why don’t you have the decency to give them what is their due? The government should pay compensation and help these families. You are so insensitive that you don't understand the pain of these families," Rahul said.
"You yourself apologised and you are saying nobody died. This is not the way the Prime Minister of India should be behaving. This is a very unpleasant, immoral and cowardly way to behave," he said.
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He said that the affected families are facing an environment where there is huge joblessness and the government has not let them work for one year and now it is taking away their livelihood. "And now you are saying to them you don't exist," he said.
Referring to the Ministry of Agriculture's response that it has no record of the farmers who died and hence the question does not arise about giving compensation, he said the farmers have died as a result of the agitation and his party was not talking about "billions of dollars, thousands of crores of rupees" but "minimum compensation for the sacrifice they have made".
"When it comes to 2-3 industrialist-friends of the Prime Minister, the government does everything. But when it comes to farmers and labourers, it says they don't exist," he said.
Arguing for giving immediate relief, he said they should be given compensation for humanity's sake, but the government doesn't want to give it.
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If the Prime Minister thought about those families, about their children, about their education and healthcare, he would have done this in one minute. But the Prime Minister is only thinking about his own image and position, Rahul alleged.
On the remaining demands of the farmers like providing legal backing for Minimum Support Price (MSP) and other things, he said he did not think that the government would accept farmers' demands as its intention was not right.
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