Haryana Congress leaders on Tuesday met Governor Bandaru Dattatreya here, seeking a judicial inquiry into the lathicharge on a group of farmers in Karnal on August 28. The farmers were protesting against the visit of Chief Minister Manohar Lal and other BJP leaders.
Congress MLAs, led by Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, submitted a memorandum to the Governor, stating that the lathicharge against the farmers in Karnal was a “planned” act. They demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident by a sitting judge of the High Court or a retired judge.
Plea to Governor
“We also requested the Governor not to give his assent to the new Land Acquisition Bill passed in the monsoon session and, instead, send it back to the Assembly for reconsideration under Article 200 of the Constitution. This Bill is anti-farmer and undemocratic. The Bill was passed hurriedly without a detailed discussion in the House,” said Mr. Hooda.
Separately, a delegation of Congress leaders led by Haryana in-charge Vivek Bansal met the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in New Delhi on the lathicharge incident.
Mr. Bansal was accompanied by Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president Kumari Selja; Congress Working Committee’s special invitee member and MP Deepender Singh Hooda; MLA and former leader of the Haryana Congress Legislature Party Kiran Choudhry.
Mr. Bansal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was using the slogan “atmanirbhar [self-reliant]” on one hand, but the government was resorting to “lathi-charges” on the farmers who had actually made the country self-reliant.
“Farmers have been agitating on the streets for the last nine months, but the government is not listening to them. At the behest of the BJP government, atrocities are being committed continuously on them. In Karnal, farmers were brutally lathi-charged and many were hurt,” he said.
