Congress Slams BJP and AAP for Crackdown on Farmers
Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, joined Congress MPs from Punjab in protesting within the Parliament complex against the forcible eviction of farmers from protest sites at Sambhu and Khanauri on the Punjab border. The protest was in response to the police crackdown on farmers who had been demonstrating at these sites for over a year.
Congress president and LoP in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, attacked both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), calling them “anti-farmer” forces that had united against the agricultural community.
Kharge Condemns Detention of Farmer Leaders
In a post on social media platform X, Kharge accused the Punjab government of initially inviting farmers for talks and then forcibly removing them from their protest sites. He strongly condemned the detention of senior farmer leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher by the Punjab Police, asserting that the ruling parties were blinded by their arrogance.
“The country has not forgotten – Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, when farmers were fired upon during BJP rule. How the son of a minister of the Modi government crushed the farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. How a farmer from Rajasthan hanged himself in Kejriwal’s rally in 2015 and he remained a silent spectator,” Kharge said.
Congress MPs Stage Demonstration at Parliament
Outside the Parliament’s Makar Dwar, Congress MPs from Punjab, including Sukhjinder Randhawa, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Gurjit Aujla, and Dharamvir Gandhi, led a demonstration condemning both the AAP-led Punjab government and the BJP-led Central government for their handling of the farmer protests.
The Congress leaders held placards demanding a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops, a key demand of the protesting farmers. They accused Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann of siding with the BJP against the farmers.
Rahul Gandhi briefly joined the protest to express solidarity with the farmers and his fellow MPs, reaffirming the party’s commitment to the farmers’ cause.
