The showcase Kisan Mahapanchayat of the Congress on Saturday here began with heavy downpour but the rain god spared the even once top leaders reached the Numaish Maidan.
After having threatened to send the preparation for the event haywire, the rains stopped but brought out high humidity which left all sweating at the ground, including the senior Congress leaders.
In fact the heavy rains in the morning even delayed the arrival of the Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi by over two hours as his copter could not land due to the wet conditions. However, once Mr Gandhi reached the venue there was a mad rush among the farmers to speak from their stage, which invited regular interventions from the senior leaders to pacify them.
In keeping with the subject of the meeting, Mr Gandhi was presented gifts like a wooden plough, a miniature bullock-cart among others. The SPG had, however, tough time in blocking a wave of Congress leaders who wanted to approach the main stage to catch the attention of Mr Gandhi. In fact some of the Congress workers climbed up on the tent to get a better view of Mr Gandhibut were asked to come down by the SPG.
Most of the speakers at the venue, including the Congress leaders and farmers’ representatives, repeatedly drew comparison between Mahatma Gandhi’s taking the cause of the farmers at Champaran with Mr Rahul Gandhi’s four-day-long padyatra in the western UP area. However, the farmers who were supposed to make their grievances heard to Mr Gandhi were seen spending much time in making political statement, which invited UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi to remind them of the purpose of the meeting.
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Farmers’ rally a flop show: BSP
age correspondent
Lucknow
July 9: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has termed the Congress Kisan Mahapanchayat in Aligarh as a “flop show”.
In a statement released here on Saturday, the BSP spokesman said that the Congress was making false statements that over one lakh farmers had attended the mahapanchayat. “There were only 7,000 seats in the pandal so where is the question of recording the presence of one lakh farmers,” the spokesman said.
The BSP further said that 80 per cent of those who attended the mahapanchayat were ticket seekers for the next Assembly elections while only 20 per cent were genuine farmers.
The spokesman said that to term the event as a Kisan Mahapanchayat was a fraud on the farmers.
The BSP added that the Congress owes an explanation to the farmers because after being in power for almost 50 years, the party could not come up with a proper land acquisition policy.