The Delhi Police on Thursday stopped the Rahul Gandhi led Congress delegation from marching  to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to submit a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovid, seeking his intervention to repeal the farm laws that has seen farmers agitating near Delhi borders for nearly a month. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and several other leaders, were taken into custody by the police and sent away in a bus after they were stopped. 

The appeal by Congress to the President has two crore signatures urging his intervention to repeal the farm laws. The Congress delegation led by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi includes his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Randeep Singh Surjewala and others.

Priyanka Gandhi and other leaders who have been taken into custody by the police and sent away in a bus after they were stopped told reporters, “Any dissent against this government is classified as having elements of terror. We are undertaking this march to voice our support for the farmers,”

She hit out at the centre and called the government a ‘sinner.’ She said, “It is a sin to use the kind of names they used for farmers. If the government is calling them anti-nationals, then the government is a sinner.”

She further added, “Sometimes they say we are so weak that we don’t qualify as Opposition and sometimes, they say that we are so powerful that we have made lakhs of farmers camp at the border for a month. They should first decide what we are.”

Rahul Gandhi met senior Congress leaders at the party headquarters before starting the march from central Delhi’s Vijay Chowk.

Opposition parties had tried to block the bills in the parliament had earlier requested President to not sign on the bills. The opposition said that the bill was passed in an undemocratic manner in the Rajya Sabha, however President had given his assent on the bill.Rahul Gandhi was a part of opposition meeting with President on December 9.

Thousands of farmers who have braved the cold, water canons, police barricades and tear gas have been protesting against the three farm bills at the Delhi borders for nearly a month. The government has been trying to engage in talks with the farmers to end this deadlock.