The presence of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi charged up thousands of Congress workers, under the leadership of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ch. Anil Kumar, when they gheraoed the Raj Niwas today, demanding the repeal of the three agricultural laws which were allegedly arbitrarily passed by the Modi government at the Centre, without any discussions with the farmers and Opposition parties.
Addressing thousands of Congress workers, Rahul Gandhi said that the BJP and its core team were harming the interest of the farmers through these three ‘anti-farmer’ agricultural laws. He said that these laws have not been made to help the farmers, but to destroy them, as they are meant only to help and benefit big corporate firms.
Rahul Gandhi warned that the Central government will have to repeal the laws, and that the Congress Party was standing by the farmers to protect their interests and will continue to support them, till the anti-farmer laws are rolled back.
Besides Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Ch. Anil Kumar, other prominent people who participated in the gherao were AICC In-charge of Delhi Shakti Singh Gohil, AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal, ex-MPs Ramesh Kumar, Krishna Tirath and Udit Raj, all the DPCC vice presidents, Delhi ministers, ex-MLAs, DCC and BCC presidents, Municipal Councillors, ex-MCs, frontal organisations, Youth Congress, Mahila Congress, Sewa Dal, NSUI, and other cells and departments, besides thousands of Congress workers.
Anil Kumar said that over 60 farmers have become martyrs to the cause, but the farmers will not back out of their protest, as they would not allow the Modi government to hand over the farm sector to a few corporations through these draconian agricultural laws. He said that eight rounds of discussions with the government have yielded little in terms of accepting the demands of the farmers, which makes these discussions pointless exercises.
He further said that the Congress has always stood by the toiling masses and is committed to support the farmers who feed the country. He said that the farmers had worked non-stop even during the pandemic, when the entire country was under lockdown, to ensure that there would be no shortage of agricultural products.
Congress workers, at the direction of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, also gheraoed Raj Bhawans across the country.