Crackdown on farmers sparks slugfest, Oppn hits out at AAP

A day after agitating farmers were evicted from Shambhu and Khanauri border points by the Punjab police, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday, alleging it seems "two anti-farmer parties" have joined hands against the country's food providers.

- Zia Haq

NEW DELHI:

Several Congress lawmakers from Punjab, including state party chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, staged a protest in Parliament complex against the police crackdown on farmers, who were protesting at Shambhu and Khanauri borders since February 13 last year. On Wednesday, the Punjab Police detained several farmer leaders, including Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, in Mohali as they were returning after a meeting with a central delegation led by Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Chandigarh. The meeting, which was the seventh round of talks between the two sides, discussed various demands of farmers, especially a legal guarantee of MSP for crops.

"It appears that two anti-farmer parties have now joined hands against the country's food providers! First the Punjab government called the farmers for talks and then forcibly removed them from the protest site," Kharge said in a post on X, alleging that both BJP and the AAP were "intoxicated" with the arrogance of power and are guilty for actions against farmers.

He also recalled various incidents against the farmers. "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 alleged.