News Source: Deccan chronicle | Image Source: ste.india, ibtimes

A crop area nearly the size of three football fields was cleared before the harvest just for Rahul Gandhi’s rally scheduled on Saturday. The crop was maize and belonged to a farmer, Neelappa Hirebidari of Gudagur village in Ranibennur taluk in Karnataka and has been destroyed, near a village in Ranibennur in central Karnataka.

The Congress claims that the farmer had willingly cut his crop because he is a supporter. However, according to a report in Deccan chronicle:The villagers are hesitant to express their anger fearing a backlash from Congress workers as these villages comes under Gudagur Gram Panchayat, the native village of the Congress legislator. “Half of the crop has dried up in my farmland owing to failure of the monsoon, causing around  Rs 40,000 loss. I had hopes of minimizing the loss by delaying the harvesting by one month as some maize corn has not become ripe. But, I have to sacrifice the crop as Congress leaders have chosen my farmland as venue for the convention on October 10. Therefore, officials have started clearing the field by removing the crop as a large number of Congress workers are expected to participate. This has compounded my woes with officials refusing to pay any compensation”,  farmer Neelappa Hirebidari said.

The farmers also alleged that they were not paid a single rupee as compensation.

The biggest irony is that for the past few months, Rahul Gandhi has been trying to be the poster boy for  farmers’ cause and the rally is supposed to address the farmers’ concerns. Our politicians have always been good with words, not with action. The treatment that is being meted out to our farmers shows the apathy of both politicians and the public. We hope action is initiated against the people who are involved and at the same time, the farmers who are fearing backlash from these politicians are given security.