‘We are with farmers’: AAP doubles down on support for protesters
Three days after protests against the contentious farm laws passed by the Central government turned violent in the city, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) reiterated their support to the farmers who are demanding that the farm laws be repealed.
AAP convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday morning asked deputy CM Manish Sisodia and urban development minister Satyendar Jain to visit agitating farmers at Delhi’s borders and ensure, once again, that they get access to water and sanitation facilities.
At the same time, AAP MPS, led by Sanjay Singh, held a sit-in protest at the Parliament demanding the farm laws be withdrawn. The AAP was also among the opposition parties that boycotted the President’s address in Parliament on Friday morning over the same issue.
Later in the day, Singh also represented the AAP in the Kisan Mahapanchayat held in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar.
In his first tweet on the matter since violence rocked the Capital on Republic Day, chief minister Kejriwal on Friday assured continued support to the farmers.
Responding to a tweet from an unverified account, purportedly of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, Kejriwal said in Hindi: “Rakesh ji, we are fully with the farmers. Your demands are valid. It is completely wrong to discredit the farmers’ movement, calling the farmers traitors and registering false cases against the farm leaders who have been agitating peacefully for so many days.”
Sisodia, who reached Ghazipur around 11.25am, oversaw the arrangements made by the administration and met Tikait.
“On Thursday, chief minister Kejriwal spoke to Tikait, who told him that the UP government had removed all arrangements for water from the Ghazipur protest site. Kejriwal assured him that the Delhi government would get the matter sorted. So, today, mobile toilets have again been installed and water facility has also been provided by us,” said Sisodia.
At Singhu border, Satyendar Jain and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) vice-chairperson Raghav Chadha said the police did not allow them to station water tankers for the farmers.
Chadha said, “The BJP government is not letting us set up even the basic facilities for the protesting farmers here. Jain, other AAP MLAS and me are here to provide water facility to the farmers. If there is any specific order by the Central government that water should not be provided to the farmers then they should show us the order. They cannot stop us.”
AAP’S Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Lok Sabha member Bhagwant Mann alleged that the party MPS were not being allowed to enter the Parliament.
“They shut the door on us because we were vehemently opposing the three farm laws,” said Mann.