Farmers Movement Archive

AAP reiterates support to protesting farmers, party MPs stage sit-in outside Parliament

New Delhi Three days after protests against the contentious farm laws passed by the Central government turned violent in the city, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) reiterated their support to the farmers who are demanding that the laws be repealed.Kejriwal on Friday morning deployed deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and urban development minister Satyendar Jain to visit the agitating farmers at Delhi’s borders and ensure, once again, that they get access to water and sanitation facilities.At the same time, a bunch of AAP MPs, led by Sanjay Singh, held a sit-in protest at the Parliament demanding the farm laws be withdrawn. The AAP was also among the opposition parties which boycotted the President’s address in the Parliament on Friday morning over the same issue. Later in the day, Singh also represented the AAP by participating in the Kisan Mahapanchayat rally held in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar area. In his first tweet on the matter ever since violence rocked the Capital on Republic Day (Tuesday), Delhi chief minister and AAP national convener Kejriwal on Friday assured farmers that he continues to support their demands, which he said are “justified”.Responding to a tweet from an unverified account, purportedly of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, Kejriwal said in Hindi: “Rakesh ji, we are fully with the farmers. Your demands are valid. It is completely wrong to discredit the farmers’ movement, calling the farmers as traitors and making false cases against the farmer leaders who have been agitating peacefully for so many days.”The number of farmers participating in the sit-in swelled overnight at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border at Ghazipur after a video of an appeal made by Tikait, in which he said he would not leave the venue, went viral.Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia who reached Ghazipur at around 11.25am oversaw the arrangements made by the city administration and met Tikait.“Yesterday (Thursday), chief minister Arvind Kejriwal spoke to Tikait, who told him that the UP government had removed all arrangements for water from the Ghazipur protest site. Kejriwal assured him that the Delhi government would get the matter sorted. So, today, mobile toilets have once again been installed here and water facility has also been provided by us,” said Sisodia, while talking to reporters during his visit.He, however, refused to get on the stage where Tikait was seated saying he did not want to mar the sanctity of the ongoing “non-political movement” of the farmers.Welcoming Sisodia, Tikait briefly addressed the protestors and rebutted questions raised by reporters on allowing politicians to participate in their movement.“It is in such tough times that one aandolankari (protester) comes to help another aandolankari. Kejriwal is also an aadolankari and we respect aandolankaaris. They are guests, how can we turn them away,” said Tikait referring to Kejriwal’s life prior to politics as an RTI activist and anti-corruption crusader. Sisodia, who is also a senior AAP leader, reiterated that the AAP stands in support of the farmers. “The farmers who have been giving food to the entire nation are being called traitors. They (farmers) are being abused and called violent. It is for the first time in India’s history that the Sikh community, known for their hardcore nationalism, are being called traitors by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Central government,” he said.The deputy chief minister questioned the BJP-led Central government for not withdrawing the three farm laws till now even as the farmers had been protesting for more than two months against it.“The BJP and the Central government will have to answer what kind of pressure they are facing from a few big private businessmen that they are refusing to hear the voices of crores of farmers and the public in general,” Sisodia said.At Singhu border, minister Satyendar Jain and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) vice-chairperson Raghav Chadha said they have not been allowed by the Delhi Police to station water tankers for the farmers.Chadha is also the co-incharge of AAP’s Punjab unit. Punjab, where AAP is the principal opposition, is scheduled to go to polls in early 2022.On Thursday, Kejriwal had announced that the AAP will fight Assembly elections in six states over the next two years. These include Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.From Singhu, Chadha said, “The BJP government is not letting us set up even the basic facilities for the protesting farmers here. Jain, other AAP MLAs and me are here to provide water facility to the farmers. If there is any specific order by the Central government that water should not be provided to the farmers then they should show us the order. They cannot stop us. Delhi government will ensure that sanitation and water facilities are set up at Singhu border today [Friday].”At the Parliament, the AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Lok Sabha MP Bhagwant Mann alleged that the party MPs were not being allowed to enter the Parliament.“We have not been allowed entry into the Parliament. They shut the door on us because we were vehemently opposing the three farm laws. The BJP has ensured that only political parties which support their decisions are allowed entry into the Parliament. We will continue our sit-in here outside the door of the Parliament,” said Mann.

Hindustan Times

30-01-2021

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