Source: The Indian Express
While mainstream media was busy hyping Madhya Pradesh CM’s ‘peace-fast’ act, there have been people in Madhya Pradesh who have been subtly protesting against the killing of farmers’ and other forms of police brutality in the region.
85 years old Kamlabai was beaten up by the Madhya Pradesh police, after which she has been sitting on an indefinite hunger strike demanding justice. As per reports in a local newspaper, she was beaten up by the police on suspicion of allegedly instigating the farmers’ protest in Madhya Pradesh. Kamlabai, who has a broken arm due to police brutality, has been sitting on fast for the past three days, hoping to be heard by the mass. She was lathi charged on June 9, said the reports.
As the state was in stir due to the farmers’ agitation, Kamlabai claims that the police had allegedly entered her house, thrashing her, causing fatal injuries to a senior citizen of the country. She added that while she was at home with her family when the unrest was in action, some intruders entered from the backside of her house and then absconded. However, she adds, that police which came in search of the intruders allegedly manhandling her.
Hoping for justice, Kamlabai also tried to meet the CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, though she was barred from meeting him by the police again.
‘I won’t eat until the accused police are suspended, I was sitting at home with my family. What is my fault?’ asks Kamlabai, a resident of Fanda.
Notably, 6 protesting farmers were killed in an open firing on Tuesday, last week, after which Mandsaur has been in a state of unrest. Furious farmers raided and set aflame a police outpost after the firing. This is when the authority clamped curfew on Pipalia town, the nucleus of violence, rushed extra forces. The farmers’ protest started last week in Mandsaur over demand for better prices for their produce and debt relief.
Though the agitation is under control after the state government decided to waive off farmers’ loans, but will Kamlabai achieve the justice she has been demanding?