Farmers’ demands valid, will back Bharat Bandh: Kejriwal at Delhi’s Singhu border

At the protest venue, Kejriwal said members of the AAP have been serving the farmers as ‘sevadars’ since the protests began. “I haven’t come here as a CM but as a ‘sevadar’. Farmers are in trouble today and we should stand with them.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has always stood by farmers as he reiterated the support to their call for the Bharat Bandh or nationwide strike on Tuesday. Kejriwal made the comments at the Capital’s Singhu border, where he has gone to extend support and check arrangements for farmers who have been protesting for the past 12 days against three farm laws enacted by the central government in September.

Delhi chief minister interacting with farmers protesting at Singhu border on Monday. (ANI Photo)

“We support all the demands of farmers. Their issues 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,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

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He was referring to the Delhi government denying police permission to convert nine stadiums in the city into temporary detention centres in light of the farmers’ agitation on November 27, a day after the ‘Dilli Chalo’ march began. “The farmers’ demands are valid. The central government should agree to their demands immediately. Detaining farmers is not the solution. Peaceful protest is the constitutional right of every Indian. They cannot be jailed for that. That’s why Delhi government is rejecting the permission sought by Delhi Police to convert stadiums into jails,” Delhi’s home minister Satyendar Jain had then said then in a letter to the Delhi Police.

At the protest venue, Kejriwal said members of the AAP have been serving the farmers as ‘sevadars’ since the protests began. “I haven’t come here as a CM but as a ‘sevadar’. Farmers are in trouble today and we should stand with them. The AAP supports Dec 8 Bharat Bandh and party workers will participate in it across the nation,” he said.

Several other political parties, including the Congress party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Left parties, Trinamool Congress (TMC), and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), have also decided to stand in solidarity with the protesting farmers by supporting the general strike on Tuesday.