Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad meet President Ram Nath Kovind to seek withdrawal of farm laws

Rahul Gandhi, Ghulam Nabi Azad met President Ram Nath Kovind to seek withdrawal of farm laws. Several leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal, and senior leader Randeep Singh Surjewala were detained.

Congress’ march to Rashtrapati Bhavan was stopped by police. Rahul Gandhi proceeded to the Rashtrapati Bhawan to meet President Ram Nath Kovind with the signatures against farm laws and said the farmers will not budge from Delhi borders till the farm laws are repealed.

Coming out after meeting President Kovind, Rahul Gandhi said, “The Opposition stands with farmers. The protesting farmers will not stop the protest till the laws are repealed.”

He added, “Government needs to convene a joint session of Parliament, If PM Modi does not take these farm laws back, the country will suffer. Anyone trying to take power from PM Modi will be dubbed as anti-national.”

Rahul Gandhi also said that there is no democracy in India. “It is only in imagination, not in reality.”

Terming government arrogant, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “Farmers need to be respected, it is a sin to brand them anti-nationals. The government is doing only its own politics and has no respect for farmers and jawans.”

The Congress has been supporting the farmer’s agitation and seeking the withdrawal of the Central farm legislations. A delegation of opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, had met the president with the same demand a few days ago.

Around 2 crore farmers’ signature have been collected from across the country, he said, while seeking the President’s intervention for annulling the three legislations.

Lakhs of farmers have been protesting in the freezing weather against the three “blatantly anti-agriculture” laws aimed at “bartering their interests in the hands of select crony capitalist friends of the (Narendra) Modi government”, the AICC general secretary said.

The protesting farmers have been blocked from entering the national capital for the last 27 days despite prior notice and peaceful intent, he alleged.

The Congress along with other political parties had vehemently opposed the bills inside and outside Parliament. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress leaders undertook an extensive ‘tractor yatra’ across Punjab and Haryana, as also in different states, Venugopal said.

The Congress leader also accused the government of pushing “manufactured surveys” in the media to create support in favour of these laws.

“From taking the government head-on in Parliament, where it blatantly and undemocratically suspended opposition MPs and labelled us as anti-national, the government has chosen to brazenly defame, discredit and eventually tire out the lakhs of protesting farmers. The Modi government and its ministers have chosen to insult them,” Venugopal said.