Protests for a farm loan waiver by the farming community in the BJP-stronghold Madhya Pradesh metamorphosed into a major crisis after police fired on the farmers, killing six of them.
Soon after the incident at Mandsaur in western MP, hundreds of irate farmers torched two police stations, eight trucks, one ambulance and two motorbikes at different places in the region ravaged by drou-ght and farmer suicides.
The administration rushed extra forces and imposed curfew restrictions in Mandsaur, some 350 km from Bhopal.
Internet services were also suspended in areas such as Mandsaur, Ratlam and Ujjain to prevent protestors from “fuelling further unrest” through inflammatory posts on social media.
Farmers last week started protests in both states, dumping vegetables and milk on roads.
The farmers protests have presented a major crisis to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who matched Narendra Modi’s record of becoming CM thrice.
Madhya Pradesh is one of the crucial states for Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi as it gave 27 of 29 seats to the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Sensing the gravity of the issue, Mr Chauhan immediately took Maha-tma Gandhi’s route to restore order in the state. He began his indefinite fast at Bhopal’s Dussehra Maidan for bringing back normalcy in the state.
He assured protesting farmers that his government will buy their farm produce by paying remunerative prices.
Claiming himself to be a farmer, Mr Chauhan had also appealed to protesters to discuss their issues with him.
With MP at stake, Gandhi rides bike
Sensing the opportunity to connect with prot-esting farmers in Mad-hya Pradesh, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited the state after a five-hour long drama on the MP-Rajasthan border.
Though the state police tried to stop Mr Gandhi from visiting the epicentre of the protests, the Congress vice-president managed to enter the state on bike defying police barricades.
Once a Congress stro-nghold, Madhya Prad-esh had elected the BJP thrice. MP is one of the few states in the north, where the Con-gress still the prime Opposition party, and dissatisfaction among farmers could help the Congress electorally.
The Congress’ bandh call affected some western parts of the state.
Former Congress MP from Mandsaur, Meenakshi Natarajan, was detained when she was on her way to meet the family members of the deceased.
The BJP, however, alleged that there was a “conspiracy” behind the ongoing agitation of farmers in Madhya Pradesh, and asked Mr Gandhi to refrain from “politicising the death of farmers” in MP.
Meanwhile, a video was run by television channels, where senior MP police official was seen telling his men to crackdown on the protesters, who he suspected, were infiltrated by some anti-social elements.
