Madhya Pradesh farmers protest: PM Narendra Modi calls senior ministers for meeting

Singh also said that he had ordered an inquiry into the firing.

The protestors alleged that police fired at them. “I only want to tell the Congress Party doesn’t politicize the issue and fuel and instigate violence in the names of the farmers because it will boomerang on you”, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu told media here.

The farmers were shot during a protest in the central city of Mandsaur. The agitation disrupted traffic movement on the Mandsaur highway.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan blamed the opposition Congress party for inciting violence.

He called the incident a “Congress conspiracy”.

Demonstrations by Indian farmers over allegations of excessive debt and improper financing that began last Thursday in the neighboring state of Maharashtra have escalated as they also spread to other regions.

“There was no firing by the police”, he said while talking to NDTV, adding that an investigation has been launched.

In-camera autopsy of bodies was going on and the cause of death will be known after it, the collector said, adding that families of the deceased will get financial aid.

A round-the-clock curfew was imposed in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district. CM announces Rs 1000 crore price stabilisation fund in scenarios where prices destabilise following bumper crop ■ Farmers take out a vehicle rally from Double Chowki, over 20 kms from Indore city.

Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangh has called for a statewide bandh – or shutdown – in Madhya Pradesh, to be observed on Wednesday, June 7. We are planning to go there (Mandsaur, MP). Singh and the state Congress chief would visit Mandsaur today.

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused the Centre of waging a war against the country’s farmers.

Prabhat Jha, the BJP MP from Madhya Pradesh, told BusinessLine that farmers were being “misled” by the Congress.

“In summer, the government would purchase the Moong dal at its Minimum Support Price (MSP)”, Chouhan said in an another tweet.

Farmers are angry because the government neither made arrangements to procure the crop on time nor intervened to ensure a reasonable price. The BJP Government dealt with the agitation through bullets instead of talks, he said.

After the meeting, the CM tweeted, “I am happy the farmers have chose to withdraw the strike”.

Farmers are observing strike June 1 to June 10 to press their demands to the government.

When asked about reports of death of three farmers, Singh said he does not have any such information.