Sportsperson Vijender Singh, who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, joins the league of public figures coming forward in support of farmers as on Sunday he said that he will return his Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award if the demands of the protesting farmers at the Delhi border aren’t fulfilled.
The 35-year-old boxer supported the farmers’ cause and said if the three ordinances are not repealed, then he will return the country’s highest sporting honour.
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.
The spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres and a group of 36 cross-party UK parliamentarians have come out in support of the agitating Indian farmers, saying people have a right to demonstrate peacefully and authorities should let them do so.
These reactions came even as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated his support for the protesting farmers despite India’s strong reaction to his earlier remarks that Canada will always be there to defend the rights of peaceful protests.
“As to the question of India, what I would say to you is what I’ve said to others when raising these issues is that people have a right to demonstrate peacefully, and authorities need to let them do so, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN Secretary General, said on Friday while responding to a question on the farmers’ protest in India.
Amid the rounds of inconclusive talks between the Centre and farmers over the bills,the Congress on Sunday 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.”