BHOPAL: Janardan Mishra, the BJP Lok Sabha member from Rewa constituency in Madhya Pradesh, has stirred a controversy when he said that modern farmers work only for three months a year and spend the remaining nine months playing cards, chewing gutka and consuming liquor.
Mr. Mishra was ‘prompted’ to make the alleged statement at a programme organized on the occasion of ‘Govardan Puja’, which fell on Tuesday, in Mauganj, falling under Rewa district, by a person, who was part of the event.
A purported video in which Mr. Mishra was heard making the comment has gone viral on social media, leading the Opposition Congress to launch a diatribe against him and the ruling BJP for ‘insulting’ the farmers by portraying them poorly in public.
In the video, Mr. Mishra was heard saying that farmers today are no longer like those in the past and have become accustomed to a comfortable lifestyle.
The farmers work only for three months a year and do nothing in the remaining nine months, he said.
Someone near the stage, meanwhile, said that the farmers play cards.
This provoked Mr. Mishra to repackage his statement and say that “Today’s farmers work for three months, while the remaining nine months are spent playing cards, chewing ‘Rajshree’ (a brand of gutka), consuming liquor, smoking cannabis and chanting ‘Jai Bhole”.
The Congress took strong exception to the statement, calling it an ‘insult’ to farmers.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary Kunal Chaudhari said that the MP undermined the contributions made by the farmers to the nation by making such an insulting comment against them.
He said that the BJP had promised to double the income of the farmers but the party’s MP did not hesitate to insult them.
Meanwhile, the Congress staged protests at Vidisha over Mr. Mishra’s statement and burnt his effigies.
Mr. Mishra is no stranger to controversy.
He triggered a debate when he made unconventional remarks in November 2024 questioning online methods of artificial concepts of child birth, asking whether such children would be made of steel, flesh or bone.
On another occasion in December 2021, he purportedly remarked that if someone commits corruption up to Rs 15 lakh, they should not even bother talking or complaining to him about it.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
