Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi boarded a train to Punjab at the New Delhi Railway station. He will visit Khanna and Gobindgarh, called the “grain bowl” of Punjab, to take stock of the situation in the state’s grain markets, where farmers are struggling to sell their produce after recent unseasonal rains.
“I’ve been told the condition of farmers is very bad. I want to see that myself,” said Gandhi, wearing a T-shirt and a stubble. He took a seat near a window on the train and promised that his fight against the Narendra Modi government on its proposed land reforms is set to become “much bigger.”
“This is a central issue; the land of farmers is taken away from them. This is wrong and I will combat it,” he said. Several party leaders are accompanying him. Â
Angry farmers have been sitting in protest on railway tracks at several places between Amritsar and Jallandhar in Punjab, affecting rail traffic on this route. Several farmer suicides have also been reported in the state recently.
Later this week, Gandhi plans to set off on a country-wide padyatra, or walk, to protest against what he calls the Modi government’s “anti-farmer policies.”
Since his return from a 56-day mysterious sabbatical abroad, Mr Gandhi has aggressively attacked the Centre, primarily on the plight of farmers in the country, both in Parliament and outside.
At a rally in Delhi three days after his return, he drew a 70,000-strong crowd of farmers and vowed to stall the government’s land acquisition bill, which makes acquiring land for industrial and key infrastructure projects easier. The Congress alleges that the Modi government’s bill is “anti-farmer.”
The Congress is attempting to rebuild politically after it was demolished by the BJP in last year’s national elections and several state elections after that. Mr Gandhi’s focus on farmers is seen as an attempt to consolidate the support of that 67 per cent of the country’s population by focusing rural anger on the Modi government, which is on the back-foot on its land reforms.