Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visits the Delhi-Haryana border today to review arrangements made for protesting farmers camping there.
“We support all demands of farmers. Their issue and demands are valid. My party and I have stood with them from the very beginning. At the beginning of their protests, Delhi Police had sought permission to convert nine stadiums into jails. I was pressurised but didn’t permit,” said Kejriwal.
“Our party, MLAs and leaders have been serving farmers as ‘sevadars’ (volunteer) ever since. I haven’t come here as CM but as a ‘sevadar’. Farmers are in trouble today, we should stand with them. AAP supports December 8th Bharat Bandh, party workers will participate in it across the nation,” he added.
Kejriwal is among the several opposition leaders who have extended support for “Bharat bandh”, which has been called for by the thousands of protesting farmers.
“The Aam Aadmi Party fully supports the Bharat Bandh call made by farmers on 8 December. AAP workers across the country will support it peacefully. There is an appeal to all countrymen that everyone should support the farmers and participate in it,” Kejriwal had tweeted.
Yesterday, Congress had also expressed its whole-hearted support to the ‘Bharat Bandh’ called on December 8 by farmer unions.
The representatives of thousands of agitating farmers have said their call for a ‘Bharat Bandh’ on December 8 would be observed with full force.
Coming out in support of the farmers, the Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera while addressing the media at the AICC headquarters said, “I would also like to announce that the Congress party extends its whole-hearted support to the Bharat Bandh on December 8.”
Protests are underway at both the Singhu and Tikri borders, where farmers had gathered from Punjab and Haryana for more than 10 days.
The protesting farmers and the centre will meet for the sixth round of talks on Wednesday as the successive rounds of talks failed to bring out any conclusive results.
After the Saturday’s meeting, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had said that a new proposal would be placed before the farmers after discussions within the government.
The centre has offered to amend sections of the laws, but the farmers, thousands of whom are camped out around Delhi’s borders and have threatened a blockade of the national capital – insist they must be scrapped.