On Mandsaur firing 2nd anniversary, CM Kamal Nath says perpetrators of the incident will be punished

BHOPAL: On the second anniversary of Mandsaur police firing that killed six protesting farmers in 2016, chief minister Kamal Nath on Thursday tweeted that perpetrators of the incident will be punished. In an afternoon tweet on Thursday, the chief minister wrote, “Today is the second anniversary of Mandsaur firing. Tributes to all farmers slain in the barbaric firing.Our government is determined to punish the perpetrators behind this incident, ascertain justice for victims and withdraw false cases registered against innocent farmers.”

Explaining the tweet, chief minister Kamal Nath’s media coordinator Narendra Saluja said, “Meeting out justice for Mandsaur police firing victims is the commitment of the Congress party. Kamal Nath government will ensure it. Now that elections are over, the government will act on this promise made to farmers of the state.” Saluja also claimed that false cases registered against farmers protesting that day when the incident occurred are already being withdrawn.
“The process of withdrawal of false cases registered against farmers is ongoing. This was in our assembly election manifesto and it is being implemented,” he said.
Congress party’s assembly election manifesto had promised, “We will withdraw all false criminal cases registered against farmers during the Farmers’ Agitations (Kisan Andolans)/political agitations by farmers and agitations done by social/political workers.”
The BJP, however, was critical about the tweet. State BJP spokesman Rahul Kothari said, “Chief minister Kamal Nath is trying to score points by raising the Mandsaur incident. He has so far been unsuccessful on the issues of implementation of Bhavantar, distribution of bonus to farmers and the acute water and power crisis prevails in the state. For the past six months, this government has only been talking about withdrawing police cases.”
On June 6, 2016 police opened fire on protesting farmers who were demanding higher prices for their produce and loan waiver from the former Shivraj Singh Chouhan government. Six persons died and the agitation spread through the state. AICC president Rahul Gandhi had tweeted, “The Govt is at war with farmers of our country #Mandsaur #Madhya Pradesh.”
From here started the Congress party’s support for farmers of the state and on the first anniversary of the firing incident last year Rahul Gandhi addressing a public meeting in Mandsaur promised what agrarians had protested for. He promised waiver of farm loans if his party came to power in the state. Six months later, Congress formed government and Kamal Nath was sworn-in chief minister. CM Nath claimed that till before the imposition of Model Code of Conduct for Lok Sabha elections, his government has waived crop loans up to Rs 2 lakh of 21 lakh farmers in the state.