Farmers Movement Archive

Rahul Gandhi to hold protest, meet President on Thursday with 20 million signatures against farm laws

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will lead a delegation on Thursday to President’s House to submit around 20 million signatures collected from across the country over the last three months seeking repeal of three farm laws passed by Parliament. Before meeting President Ram Nath Kovind, Gandhi will also lead a protest against the three farm laws enacted in September.Congress MP K Suresh said that the demonstration will begin at 10:45 am from Vijay Chowk.“Rahul Gandhi along with Opposition leaders met President and submitted the memorandum to resolve farmers’ issue. But there was no action from the President and the government. Rahul Gandhi will lead demonstration tomorrow at 10:45 am from Vijay Chowk to Rashtrapati Bhavan with Congress MPs,” news agency ANI quoted Suresh as saying.“After that, he and other senior leaders will meet the President of India and submit a memorandum containing 2 crore signatures for his intervention to resolve the farmers’ agitation,” he added. Gandhi earlier undertook a tractor rally across Punjab and Haryana as part of the campaign against the laws.The Congress launched a nationwide campaign in September for collecting appeals of farmers, farm labourers, and other stakeholders addressed to President Kovind for repealing the laws.Hundreds of farmers are protesting at the borders of Delhi since November 26 against the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. The government has held several rounds of talks with the farmers so far but no breakthrough has been achieved.On December 8, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had held a meeting with the 13 representatives of farm unions. However, a day later, farmer leaders rejected a proposal sent by the Centre.

Hindustan Times

23-12-2020

India