No more sympathy for kisan? Farmers' crops in K'taka allegedly destroyed for Rahul Gandhi's rally

Rahul Gandhi is a politician who is known for raising farmers’ issues. He was one of the biggest voices against the Modi government’s land bill. He had also vehemently criticised the Modi government on the issue in innumerable rallies, called the government ‘anti-farmer’ and ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ and had even promised to give the common man a ‘ kurta-pajama sarkar ’ instead. [caption id=“attachment_2459478” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] It is one of the biggest ironies, then, that farmers’ crops are allegedly being destroyed to make space for the construction of a stage for the Congress vice-president’s rally scheduled for 10 October. According to this Deccan Chronicle report, the maize crop grown in four acres of farmland which belongs to farmer Neelappa Hirebidari of Gudagur village in Ranibennur taluk in Karnataka has been destroyed just so that a temporary stage for Rahul Gandhi can be constructed. “Half of the crop has dried up in my farmland owing to failure of the monsoon, causing around Rs 40,000 loss. I had hopes of minimizing the loss by delaying the harvesting by one month as some maize corn has not become ripe. But, I have to sacrifice the crop as Congress leaders have chosen my farmland as venue for the convention on October 10. Therefore, officials have started clearing the field by removing the crop as a large number of Congress workers are expected to participate. This has compounded my woes with officials refusing to pay any compensation,” Deccan Chronicle quoted Neelappa as saying. NDTV also reported that according to the Congress, Rahul Gandhi will travel to the venue by helicopter and then go on a 9-km padyatra. The entire route of this foot-march had been allegedly cleared of crops. As if that was not enough, patches of farmland are also being cleared for a makeshift parking lot. The report added that the Congress has claimed that the farmer Neelappa had willingly cut his crop because he was a Congress supporter.