Farmers Movement Archive

UK MPs express horror at attempts to clear farmer protest sites on Delhi borders

LONDON: Two British Sikh Labour MPs who support the Indian farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s new farm laws have expressed horror at the way “mobs and the police” are trying to clear the three protest sites on Delhi’s borders. Tens of thousands of farmers have been camped in the freezing cold at the Singhu, Ghazipur, and Tikri borders for the past two months demanding the repeal of laws that they say will destroy livelihoods. On Friday night Labour MP Preet Gill tweeted a video of a tent being forcibly dismantled and wrote: “Makeshift camps of peaceful farmers are being taken down to silence them. Heart-breaking that this is happening to women, girls and the elderly as police stand and witness the attacks.” “The images being shared globally are heart-breaking. Police using force against its own citizens. India should be proud of the contribution of farmers who are referred to as ‘aandata (food providers)’. Former World Bank chief economist Kaushik Basu has spoken out in support of the farmers,” she told TOI. “The world is watching," wrote MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, as he tweeted images of protesters covered in blood being beaten up. “Violence can’t be condoned,” he tweeted. “But if people in power abuse peaceful protesters, it’ll merely make their movement stronger. Shocked to see mobs and police trying to intimidate and clear Delhi #FarmersProtest after stopping their water, electricity and internet.” “The authorities must allow the protesters, the overwhelming majority of whom are peaceful, to make their voice heard,” he told TOI. Twenty-three gurdwaras and Sikh organisations have written to UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab calling on him to carry out an urgent assessment of the “deteriorating situation in India” and to raise “human rights violations against the protesting farmers” with the United Nations and the Indian government. The letter asks Raab to urge the Indian authorities to “act with restraint and resume peaceful dialogue with the farmer groups”, and reminds him how the UK often raises concerns about China’s crackdown on protests in Hong Kong.

The Times of India

2021-01-31

World