Madhya Pradesh farmers' protest: Rifts appear in BJP as Kailash Vijayvargiya hits out at home minister

Even as curfew was on Friday relaxed for the day in Mandsaur and Pipliamandi as the situation in the areas hit by violent protests by farmers improved, rifts appeared in the BJP as some leaders criticised the government over the violent protests. [caption id=“attachment_3534719” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Kailash Vijayvargiya. Image courtesy: @KailashOnline/Twitter[/caption] While BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh Assembly Babulal Gaur said that the farmers were genuinely angry across the country and Congress did not have the capability to instigate a farmer’s protest of this scale, the party’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya criticised state home minister Bhupendra Singh, whose U-turn on an earlier statement that police had not opened fire on farmers had embarrassed the government. “What Bhupendra Singh said earlier must have been on first information received from the scene of the incident. But a home minister should show more responsibility when giving statements after an incident like this. A senior cabinet minister of his stature should not make any random statement without knowing and cross-checking facts,” The Times of India quoted Vijayvargiya as saying. This is not the first time that Vijayvargiya has spoken out against the state government. In September 2016, Vijayvargiya had targeted the Chouhan government and the BJP state party chief Nandkumar Chouhan and had alleged that corruption was rising in the state. “Corruption was always there, but in the first 10 years of BJP rule, it was under control. However, it is now rampant at lower level… The bureaucrats don’t respect (party) workers. Some workers complain to me when I am in Delhi, but not everyone can come to Delhi,” The Indian Express had quoted Vijayvargiya as saying. At least 56 people have been arrested and over 100 detained in connection with violence during the farmers’ agitation in Mandsaur. The state’s home minister Bhupendra Singh had told PTI that the five farmers had been killed in police firing, a remark that assumes significance as the authorities had earlier claimed the police did not fire during the protests. To bring back normalcy, the chief minister had made a fresh attempt to reach out to the agitating farmers, saying the state government was open to a dialogue to iron out the differences and once again appealed them to maintain peace. With inputs from PTI