‘Need Just One Word Of Sympathy’: Kapil Sibal To PM On Farmers’ Killing

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal today asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi how he would have reacted to the violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri in which eight persons were killed.

“Modi ji, why are you silent? We need just one word of sympathy from you. That should not be difficult. Had you been in opposition how would you have reacted? Please tell us,” Mr Sibal tweeted.

The Congress, which has kept up its attack on the centre and the Yogi Adityanath government over Sunday’s violence, has been demanding the resignation of Union Minister Ajay Mishra whose son allegedly ran over an SUV on protesting farmers.

Days after the incident, the minister’s son, Ashish, accused of murder in the farmer deaths, has been summoned for questioning, the UP police said on Thursday. Two people who were at the location of the incident have been arrested, the police said. Though the Minister of State for Home has admitted the SUV belonged to him, he said he and his son were not present at the spot.

On Wednesday, top Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited Lakhimpur Kheri and met families whose loved ones died in the violence.

“If the Minister of State for Home does not resign nor is he sacked, then it means that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving a message to the public that if someone is in power, if he is a minister, he can do anything,” Ms Gandh Vadrai told reporters in Moharnia, where she met the family members of Gurvinder Singh, one of the four farmers killed in the violence.

The Supreme Court, which is hearing a petition regarding the events at Lakhimpur Kheri, on Thursday questioned “how many people have been arrested” and asked the Uttar Pradesh government to submit a status report by today.