Agitating Farmers on Monday said they will peacefully hold a Bharat Bandh from 11 am to 3 pm on Dec 8 , blocking toll plazas but will allow emergency services to move. On the other hand, the BJP came out against the opposition parties that have lent their support to the Bharat Bandh call.
AMN / WEB DESK
With the backing of several political parties and trade unions, protesting farmers heading for Bharat Bandh tomorrow.
Announcing their plans for the Bharat Bandh on Tuesday, farmers’ leaders said that they will occupy toll plazas at the borders of Delhi between 11 am to 3 pm.
While assuring that emergency services will be allowed during Bharat Bandh, the leaders have also appealed farmers to maintain peace and not to enter into any scuffle to enforce the bandh.
Meanwhile, the BJP accused its rivals of “shameful double standards” as it claimed that parties like the Congress and the NCP had once supported what are now key provisions of the new laws.
In the backdrop of the protest against farm laws, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that reforms are needed for development, and said some laws of the past century have become a “burden” in the current times.
In Lucknow, UP Police took Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav into custody after SP leaders led by him broke through the security cordon to sit on a dharna in the heart of the city to oppose the three farm bills.
Led by two-time Asian Games gold-winning former wrestler Kartar Singh, a few sportspersons from Punjab on Monday marched towards the Rashtrapati Bhavan to return “35 national sports awards” in a show of solidarity with farmers agitating against new agriculture laws but were stopped midway by the police.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the Singhu border, where thousands of farmers are protesting against the Centre’s new farm laws, and checked arrangements made for them by the city government.
“We are working like ‘sewadaar’. Here I have not come as a chief minister but as a ‘sewadaar’ to serve the farmers. It is our responsibility to support the farmers,” he said.
The RSS-backed Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) said it won’t support Tuesday’s ‘Bharat Bandh’ against the Centre’s new farm laws but would like the legislation to go through some “improvements”.
“We are not supporting the ‘Bharat bandh’ but we don’t endorse the three laws in toto (completely),” a BKS leader said.
The Centre asked all states and Union Territories to tighten security during Tuesday’s ‘Bharat Bandh’ while asserting that peace and tranquillity must be maintained on that day. In a countrywide advisory, the Union Home Ministry also said the state governments and UT administrations must ensure that the Covid-19 guidelines issued with regard to health and social distancing are strictly followed.