Bengaluru : Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday held the BJP “directly responsible” for the Dadri lynching and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “indirectly inciting” communal violence.

Addressing gram panchayat members at the Gram Swaraj Samavesh organised by the Congress at the Palace Grounds here, Gandhi said the BJP was “polarising” the country by making Hindus and Muslims fight each other. BJP leaders “incite” violence wherever there are elections and they are doing it everywhere in the country, he said.

Gandhi took a swipe at the prime minister’s call for maintaining communal harmony and noted that Modi had a similar history. “The prime minister says there should be no violence. But who is making that happen? Their own people are inciting violence. BJP people are doing it. And you also know the prime minister’s past… He says there should be no violence. What does it mean,” he demanded, in an oblique reference to the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2012.

The Congress vice president also criticised the prime minister for “unfairly” treating farmers from Karnataka as if they didn’t belong to this country. “The prime minister recently announced a special package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore for poll-bound Bihar, but he hasn’t bothered to speak a word about distressed farmers in the country. The Centre has completely ignored the farming community. Modi has time for globetrotting, but no time to visit a single farmer who is in distress,” he said.

Gandhi reiterated that the NDA government was a ‘suit boot ki sarkar’ and charged Modi with trying to “steal” farmers’ land by amending the 2013 land acquisition Act to favour industrialists. “He (Modi) thinks this country can be run from the prime minister’s office and with the help of bureaucrats. But the country cannot be run that way. Pradhans, MLAs and MPs have to do it… But even MPs of the ruling party and ministers do not have any say in the Modi government,” he suggested.

iSddaramaiah was learnt to be under pressure from ‘loyal’ State Congress leaders to announce sops to the farmers during Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the State. However, the Chief Minister was unwilling to take an additional financial burden as he had recently announced the waiver of interest on cooperative loans. Sources said the loyal leaders managed to persuade Rahul Gandhi on the need for announcing new measures. So the Congress Vice President directed Siddaramaiah to work out a package and announce it in Haveri on Saturday