'Disgruntled' BJP MP Varun Gandhi - dumped from saffron party's National Executive this month after sharing a post on social media on Lakhimpur Kheri and protesting farmers - has trained his guns on Modi government on Thursday and tweeted a clip of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1980 speaking in support of protesting farmers.
Gandhi shared a short clip of a speech of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1980 in which he warns the then Indira Gandhi government against repressing farmers and extends his support to them.
Gandhi tweeted, "Wise words from a big-hearted leader..."
The BJP MP has been vocal in empathising with farmers agitating against the three agri laws enacted by the Modi government and sharing Vajpayee''s speech is seen as his message to the central government.
In the video clip, Vajpayee is heard telling a gathering that farmers cannot be scared.
"... warn the government against intimidating farmers. Don't try to scare us... Farmers are not going to be scared. We don't want to use farmers' movement for politics..." Vajpayee heard saying in the video.
"If the government will suppress (farmers), misuse laws and repress a peaceful agitation, then we will not shy away from joining the farmers'' struggle and standing with them," former PM further said.
"We support their genuine demands, and if the government tries to scare us, or misuse the laws, or disregard the peaceful movement of farmers, we will also become part of the movement," he adds.
Gandhi has also sought stringent action against those responsible for the death of four farmers after vehicles, allegedly linked to BJP leaders, ran over them in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri. He was recently dropped from the BJP national executive in what was seen as an indication of the party leadership's unhappiness with the Pilibhit MP.
Last week, BJP president J P Nadda announced the 80-member National Executive of the party. BJP MP Varun Gandhi, who has been speaking in support of farmers during their ongoing stir against the three agri laws, his MP mother Maneka Gandhi and former Union minister Birender Singh, who has also been supportive of the agitation, were dropped as executive members.
The executive is a key deliberative body of the party which meets to discuss key issues facing the government and shapes the organisation's agenda.
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