This is the kind of injustice we want to fight, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted on Thursday with a video clip from Guna in Madhya Pradesh in which a Dalit farmer couple is seen being forcibly evicted out of a government land by the police.
The parliamentary constituency of Guna is the traditional Lok Sabha seat of Jyotiraditya Scindia, who switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in March. Mr. Scindia, then in the Congress, had lost to BJP’s Krishna Pal Singh Yadav in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Mr. Gandhi’s tweet is also politically loaded as it comes in the midst of the Rajasthan crisis and repeated rumours that former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot is all set to join the BJP.
Mr. Pilot, though, had categorically ruled out such a possibility in an interview to The Hindu.
“Our fight is against this ideology and injustice,” tweeted Mr. Gandhi over a two- minute video, reported to be from July 14, that showed police thrashing a farmer couple who had resisted forcible eviction from the government land where they were growing crops.
On being forced out of the land, the couple had consumed poison in front of the government authorities, forcing the officials to shift them to a hospital.
Posting the same video, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted in Hindi: “Attack on the poor, attack on Dalits, attack on farmers, attack on democracy. This is the real face and character of the BJP. The Congress will fiercely fight such injustice".
Scindia's reaction
Though Mr. Scindia did not directly respond to Mr. Gandhi’s tweet, he did inform on Twitter about the Guna Collector being transferred after this incident.
“The Guna SP and Collector have been removed, and inquiry has been sought into the incident. I am confident that action will be taken against all those who are responsible for this heinous act,” Mr. Scindia replied to a tweet from a journalist.
The former Congress chief’s tweet targeting the police action in Guna comes just days after Mr. Scindia’s tweet targeting the Congress.
“Sad to see my erstwhile colleague, @SachinPilot too, being sidelined and persecuted by Rajasthan CM, @ashokgehlot51. Shows that talent and capability find little credence in the @INCIndia,” Mr. Scindia had tweeted on July 12.
