Cong tries to corner Shivraj over Mandsaur firing

The Congress on Thursday grabbed a leaked judicial commission report on killing of farmers at Mandsaur to put Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the dock ahead of the Assembly elections later this year.

The report of J K Jain Commission, which probed the firing on farmers in Mandsaur in June last year, had observed that anti-social elements had taken over the farmers' agitation as no leader who had taken the initiative to organise the agitation was present in Bahi Parswanath village where two protestors were killed.

The report, submitted to the Madhya Pradesh government last week, also states that the firing on farmers was “absolutely necessary” and “justified” thus giving a clean chit to the state police and the paramilitary force.

Set up in June last year, the Jain Commission was supposed to give its report on September 11, 2017. But it was given four extensions and it finally submitted the report to the chief secretary on June 11. It was to be tabled in the Assembly, but certain portions of it were leaked to the media in Bhopal earlier this week.

“This report is an insult to the farmers who have been described as 'anti-social elements'. We reject this report,” senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari told reporters here.

The Mandsaur killings have become a key election issue in Madhya Pradesh ahead of the year-end Assembly elections.

On June 6, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had addressed a rally in Mandsaur to commemorate the first anniversary of the police firing in which six farmers were killed.

Gandhi had promised action against officials responsible for the killing of farmers within 10 days of a Congress government coming to power in Madhya Pradesh.

“The BJP government has committed an unpardonable sin. It exposes the true face of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who seeks votes by calling farmers as 'annadata' and calls them 'anti-social elements' after being felled by police bullets,” Tiwari said.

The BJP is also feeling the heat of the Mandsaur killings and struggling to find out ways to counter the Congress offensive which could cost it dearly in the assembly elections.