Former Congress President and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter today to share a picture to hail ‘farmers’ who had gathered in large number to agitate against the central government’s three farm laws. Using #FarmersProtest, the senior Congress leader captioned the post in Hindi which translates to ‘Bharat Bhagya Vidhata is standing here, fearless’.
However, this time too, Rahul Gandhi chose an old, unrelated image to peddle his ongoing propaganda to malign the Modi government. The image is actually that of a Kisan rally that was held at Shamli, Uttar Pradesh, from February this year.
In fact, the same image which Rahul Gandhi tried to pass off as that of recent farmers’ protest is a picture by news agency PTI which was used by multiple media outlets.
Here is Congress mouthpiece National Herald using same image for an article on Shamli from February 5 this year.
Back then, Shamli administration had imposed prohibitory orders under CrPC section 144. Despite that, the ‘farmers’ had gathered.
Congress orchestrating ‘farmer protests’
The initial so-called farmer protests started in Punjab with explicit support of Punjab Congress leaders including Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. Then other self-appointed politician-leaders too joined in as ‘farmer leaders’ like Rakesh Tikait and former AAP leader Yogendra Yadav.
The three new agriculture laws aim to help farmers to sell their produce to whoever they wish to while giving them the safety net of MSP as per existing system. However, this step which removes the middlemen from the transaction seems to have irked a few ‘farmers’ who have taken to streets to protest against the same. These protests have also seen participation from pro-Khalistan elements. On several instances during the so-called farm protests, banners of Khalistani proponent Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale were raised.
With high octane Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections coming up in just few months’ time, the politicians masquerading as ‘farmers’ have again come out in full force to have a proxy political campaign on behalf of opposition leaders against the ruling BJP. And as one can see, opposition parties like Congress has full ‘support’ to these protests.