Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, accompanied by party general secretary Amar Singh, today visited Munderwa in Basti district to express solidarity with sugarcane growers and to mourn the death of innocent farmers in the recent police firing.Fearing that the state administration would not allow them to reach Munderwa if they went by road, Mulayam and Amar flew to the district in a helicopter. The state administration had earlier not allowed an SP team led by the Opposition leader in the Vidhan Parishad and another team led by state party president Azam Khan to visit the families of those killed and the injured farmers.Later, addressing a farmers’ rally in Munderwa, Mulayam said the Congress should learn a lesson from its humiliating defeat in Gujarat and join hands with secular forces to defeat communal and casteist forces.Expressing concern over the plight of sugarcane growers, the SP leader said the BSP-BJP coalition government could not ameliorate the farmers’ condition. The BJP, which believes in capturing power by exploiting religious sentiments, and the BSP, which plays caste politics, were not bothered about the farmers’ plight, he added.Mulayam said his party could not be a silent spectator in the face of such circumstances and announced that on December 20, his party would organise demonstrations and rallies at all district headquarters of the state in protest against the killing of farmers and in support of their demand for remunerative price and payment of arrears. He also demanded a CBI inquiry into the police firing in Basti.The Samajwadi leader alleged that the Mayawati government has taken the mill owners’ side because she had got Rs 100 crore from them. ‘‘If in Haryana and other states, farmers could be paid Rs 110 per quintal, why can’t it happen in UP?’’ he asked.
