Congress, which suffered humiliating defeats in last few elections, on Monday presented a united face at the farmers convention in Lahaar, evoking the Dabra spirit of 1993, and promising to fight for the farmers of the state in the next assembly elections scheduled next year.
The party also released a 12-point charter of demands, including loan waiver, remunerative price for farm produce and GST-free farm inputs.
The ‘Dabra’ spirit is the Holy Grail for the Congress’s unity in the state. In 1993, late Madhavrao Scindia, initiated a conclave of senior Congress leaders in Dabra, a small town some 45 km from Gwalior, just before the 1993 assembly elections where they managed to bury the hatchet and succeeded in coming to power defeating the BJP.
In presence of former Union minister Kamal Nath and AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh among others, Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Congress chief whip in Lok Sabha, launched a scathing attack on chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over the death of six farmers. “It is a murder of democracy. This is not Shivraj government, but a Shavraj (dead body) government,” Scindia said.
Accusing Chouhan of being insensitive, he said, “Instead of visiting the families of the farmers who had died in the firing, the CM made them travel 400 km to Bhopal to ‘request’ him to break his fast,” Scindia said.
{{/usCountry}}Accusing Chouhan of being insensitive, he said, “Instead of visiting the families of the farmers who had died in the firing, the CM made them travel 400 km to Bhopal to ‘request’ him to break his fast,” Scindia said.
{{/usCountry}}Indicating that farmer’s cause would be one of the main planks of the Congress in the next assembly elections, Scindia said, “A hundred years ago, Mahatma Gandhi had started the Champaran movement for farmers’ rights and now a new movement is starting from Lahaar and would lead to the formation of a farmer’s government in the state.”
Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being insensitive towards the farmers, he said, “Not once in his numerous tweets has be condoled the death of the farmers. The farmer is suffering and the PM is enjoying himself in foreign countries.”
With the Congress high command yet to decide on the face of the election campaign in the state, Digvijaya Singh brought in an element of drama when he pointed towards the dias and said, “It is from among those sitting here that the next chief minister of the state will be chosen.” However, he ruled himself out of the race.