Congress MP Rahul Gandhi  escalated his attack at the central government over the matter of compensation to farmers, who died agitating against the Centre’s now-repealed three new agriculture laws, or at least even “acknowledging the deaths”.

“A question was asked in the Parliament (on December 1) whether the government proposes to provide financial assistance to the kin of farmers who died during the farmers’ agitation. The Ministry of Agriculture said that it has no record in the matter and hence the question (of compensation) doesn’t arise,” Gandhi said at a press conference in New Delhi today.

Mounting his charge at the Centre, Gandhi said that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is lying about not knowing the names of deceased farmers.

“PM himself has said that he has made a mistake, he has apologised to the nation. As a result of that mistake, 700 people have died. Now you are lying about their names. Why don’t you have the decency to give them what is their due? Here’s the list of 500 farmers who have lost their lives. The rest of the names will be found out and given in due time. You didn’t even give them a 2-minute condolence in Parliament. It’s wrong. The government has record. If they want, they can take our list and compensate the farmers,” the Wayanad MP said.

The Centre had said in Parliament on Wednesday that they do not have any record of farmers who “died” during the protests outside Delhi, and hence there was no question of providing compensation to their kin.

“We have 403 people who the (Congress) government of Punjab has compensated Rs 5 lakhs each and has given jobs to 152. We also have a list of 100 names from other states and a third list which is public info of names that can easily be verified. But the government says that such a list does not exist,” Gandhi said.