New Delhi: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi on Thursday met Navreet Singh’s family in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur for his last rites. Her visit will likely be seen as a direct confrontation with the Yogi Adityanath-led UP government, which has clamped down on journalists and scores of activists who have reported on the family’s suspicions over the young farmer’s death during the Republic day tractor parade in the national capital. While a large section of Opposition leaders have shown a renewed solidarity towards protesting farmers – after concerted attempts by the Centre to isolate the six-month-long agitations over the three controversial laws – it has also remained largely muted on the suspicions raised by Navreet’s grandfather Hardeep Singh Dibdiba that the UP government may have hushed up his son’s post-mortem report. The police had earlier released the CCTV footage showing Navreet’s tractor turning turtle while asserting that he died because of an accident. However, his family and a section of farmers have been pointing out that he died because of a bullet wound, allegedly fired by police personnel.Also read: ‘Autopsy Doctor Told Me He’d Seen the Bullet Injury but Can Do Nothing as His Hands Are Tied’Gandhi’s visit to Dibdiba village to meet his family on a day when his final prayers were performed has put the spotlight on the mystery surrounding Navreet’s death yet again. Gandhi’s meeting with Navreet’s family can be distinguished from the larger support that the farmer’s movement has received from Opposition leaders on at least two counts. One, she chose to directly confront the Adityanath regime, which has been more or less dependent on a pliant police force to crush all forms of dissent, Navreet’s case being a case in point. Two, as UP-in-charge for her party, this may help her party garner sympathy from a sizeable number of farmers who believe that Navreet’s death was hushed up by the BJP to save face. With the assembly elections due next year, Congress has been trying to build organisational support in Uttar Pradesh. Gandhi attended the antim ardas (final prayers for the departed) and sat with family members with her head covered. After meeting the family members, Gandhi said: “Family members of the deceased want judicial inquiry,” becoming the only leader from a mainstream political party to have openly called for a probe into the matter. “I have come here to tell you that you are not alone. All citizens of the country stand with you today. We will not allow Navreet’s martyrdom to go in vain,” she told Navreet’s grandfather.Hardeep Singh Dibdiba said that he and the entire family felt better after meeting with Gandhi. “What we have lost is lost. But it feels good to see that leaders have come in our support. Whatever she said today to us, she said it from her heart.” According to him, more than 5,000 people had joined today’s prayer meeting for Navreet Singh.Ever since Navreet died, the UP government has particularly singled out the case to pin down its critics who have reported on the issue. Also read: Tractor Rally: Questions Over Arrest Tally; Protesters’ Families Say They Were Kept in DarkAfter The Wire’s story on Navreet Singh’s death containing the allegations made by the family members, Rampur police booked The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan and its reporter Ismat Ara. Previously, multiple FIR’s were filed against India Today journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, National Herald’s senior consulting editor Mrinal Pande, Qaumi Awaz editor Zafar Agha, The Caravan magazine’s editor and founder Paresh Nath, editor Anant Nath and its executive editor Vinod K. Jose, by Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka and Delhi police for either tweeting or pursuing a story on the allegations of Navreet Singh’s family. A range of charges, including sedition, have been invoked against them.On January 26, after the tractor parade got over, the farmers returned to the borders late in the evening. Security was beefed up at all the borders and thousands of UP police personnel and CRPF jawans armed with weapons, lathis and tear gas gheraoed the protest site at Ghazipur border, demanding the dispersal of lakhs of protestors. Mainstream media reported that the protest was going to be over as Rakesh Tikait was expected to surrender anytime.Also read: The Limits of Hindutva’s Homegrown AuthoritarianismSoon, an emotional announcement by Tikait with tears in his eyes changed the turn of events. Crying, he said that he will commit suicide but not end the protests. After photos of him with tears in his eyes went viral on social media, hundreds of tractors from different parts of UP reached Ghazipur border. Farmers on their tractors move towards Delhi during their rally on Republic Day, at Singhu border in New Delhi, Tuesday, January 26, 2021. Photo: PTI/Shahbaz KhanWhile the UP government has depended on police action, the Centre too amped its offensive stance against farmers who were visibly agitated after Navreet’s death, and had been projecting the young farmer as a “martyr”. The next day, Delhi police built multi-layered barricades, dug trenches, put in metal spikes, erected barbed wire fencing, restricted protesters’ access to water and toilets. The Internet was also restricted. Soon after, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology also sent a notice to Twitter, directing it to remove accounts relating to the farmers’ protests that it deemed to be offensive under Section 69A of the IT Act, including the account of the monthly magazine Caravan. The platform was served a notice by the ministry for reinstating the accounts later after facing backlash. After pop star Rihanna shared a report on Twitter about the Internet restrictions at the protest sites, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday released a statement saying, “Unfortunate to see vested interest groups trying to enforce their agenda on these protests, and derail them.” The statement also defended the three farm laws against which farmers are protesting, and said that reforms intend to provide greater flexibility to farmers. Also read: Bad Girl Diplomacy Takes Ministry of External Affairs by StormOn Thursday, Greta Thunberg’s tweet on a “toolkit” for supporting the farmer protests was cited in a case filed by the Delhi Police. The charges include sedition, an overseas “conspiracy” and an attempt to “promote enmity between groups.”After this development, Thunberg tweeted, “I still #StandWithFarmers and support their peaceful protest. No amount of hate, threats or violations of human rights will ever change that. #FarmersProtest.” The police later clarified that its case is against the “creators of the toolkit” and does not name Greta Thunberg.‘Enraged with the BJP’Gandhi’s visit may also amplify the voices of farmers’ unions who have been highlighting the fact that more than a hundred farmers have died during the protests against the three farm bills till now, two of them from Rampur district. Navreet Singh, 25, from Dibdiba died during the Republic day tractor parade while Kashmir Singh, 75, from Pashiapur village died by suicide at the protest site near Ghaziabad. In his suicide note, Kashmir Singh expressed his anguish that though some people from Punjab died during the farmers’ protest, no one from UP or Uttarakhand had sacrificed their life. He also reiterated the view of lakhs of protesting farmers that the new farm laws made by the government were not in the interests of farmers.Daljeet Singh, Navreet Singh’s neighbour, while speaking to The Wire, said, “Our MLA hasn’t come to meet us yet. We were strong supporters of the BJP but don’t want them to come now.” Baldev Singh Aulakh, the current BJP MLA of Bilaspur, has not made any attempts to meet with Navreet Singh’s family according to his grandfather, Hardeep Singh Dibdiba. Watch: ‘It’s Not Farmers but Modi Who’s Being Misled by Ambani-Adani’While speaking to The Wire’s correspondent, a few days after Navreet’s death, for a video story, his family said that they were staunch BJP supporters but are now enraged. Dibdiba village is part of the Bilaspur constituency in Rampur, and many residents of the village now feel cheated after the young man’s death and the administration’s “hush-hush” attitude towards it. Gandhi’s meeting with Navreet’s family gains significance also in the light of various Opposition parties’ sustained attempts to consolidate the political churn in western UP in favour of their parties. Out of the five assembly seats in Rampur, two MLA seats currently belong to Samajwadi Party, one seat is empty, and the remaining two had become strongholds of the BJP after the 2017 assembly elections.Congress UP president Ajay Kumar Lallu, a Samajwadi Party delegation, and Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chaudhary also visited the village at the same time as Gandhi. Chaudhary, along with other leaders, had also demanded a probe into the matter. However, Gandhi is the first political leader from a national party to demand a judicial probe into Navreet’s death, making her visit politically significant. People attend a Maha Panchayat or grand village council meeting as part of a farmers’ protest against farm laws at Kandela village in Jind district in the northern state of Haryana, India, February 3, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Danish Siddiqui‘A huge loss for the BJP’Sharat Pradhan, a political analyst based in UP said that this is a wise move on Gandhi’s part. While speaking to The Wire, he said, “The tragedy in UP is that the Opposition is absolutely dead and she [referring to Gandhi] can be seen trying to revive it. Akhilesh’s politics has reduced to Twitter now, and Mayawati has been implicated by agencies under the central government so much so that she can barely speak.” “After weighing in on the pros and cons of the case, and realising that neither Akhilesh Yadav nor Mayawati chose to rise to the occasion, she made a smart move by jumping at it. But we have to keep in mind that more than any party’s gain, this is a huge loss for the BJP,” he added.When The Wire’s correspondent visited Dibdiba village, Navreet’s father Vikramreet Singh claimed that he worked for the BJP. His neighbours said that they had been working for the saffron party since the time it was non-existent in the state. What will be the ripple effect of Gandhi’s visit to meet Navreet’s family who have made their concerns about their son’s death public remains to be seen.