Gutless on China, ‘at war with our protesting farmers’, says Congress

Party leaders feel exceptional barricading at protest sites betrayed the government’s belligerence and complete lack of trust in the cultivators

Multiple layers and levels of barricades set up at the Delhi-UP border in Ghazipur to cut off and block protesting farmers: PTI

Sanjay K. Jha   |   TT   |   New Delhi   |    03.02.21 : The Congress on Tuesday expressed outrage at the unprecedented barricading at farm law protest sites along Delhi’s borders with barbed wires, iron spikes, concrete walls and unusually heavy deployment of forces, wondering if the government that didn’t have the “guts” to confront China was “at war with our own farmers”.

Posting several photographs of barbed wires and concrete structures raised on the roads along the protest sites at Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur, images that have triggered shock and disbelief across the nation, Rahul Gandhi said in a Twitter message: “Government of India, build bridges, not walls.”

Congress leaders feel this exceptional barricading betrayed the government’s belligerence and complete lack of trust in farmers.

While Priyanka Gandhi Vadra asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi whether he was “at war with our own farmers”, Rahul in another tweet said: “Modi style of governance — Shut them up, Cut them off, Crush them down.”

In another tweet in response to a report about a huge build-up of Chinese soldiers and tanks along the Line of Actual Control, the Congress leader said: “China continues to prepare, build up and position its forces while our Prime Minister is scared to even say the word China. Firm action is needed to avert a catastrophe. Unfortunately, Mr Modi doesn’t have the guts.”

That the frightening images from the protest sites has forced the Congress to compare the government’s bellicosity against the farmers with the response against the Chinese intrusions in Ladakh was manifested again in a tweet by party communications chief Randeep Surjewala.

“Modi ji, we wish you did this fortification on the border with China instead of the Delhi border. What kind of a Prime Minister are you? You are scared of taking China’s name and stop the farmers with barbed wires, iron spikes and concrete structures. Farmers sow crops to feed the nation and the government sows nails on the road to stop farmers. Is this the new India of Modi-Shah?” he said.

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot also came out strongly against the central government’s handling of the situation, arguing a dangerous precedent was being set in this democratic country.

“Digging up roads, planting nails and barbed wires is not a good policy. Several big agitations happened during the UPA regime but the police and armed forces were never used to execute such policies of coercion. The government itself damaging public property is condemnable. The Modi government must shed its ego and accept the demands of the farmers,” Gehlot said.

The Congress core committee met on Tuesday morning and decided to stand with the farmers with full might. While the party forcefully raised the issue in both Houses of Parliament, leading to adjournments, the leaders lamented why the government was not willing to discuss the crisis.

Arguing that no issue could be bigger than this standoff as lakhs of farmers are sitting in the cold at Delhi’s borders, many Opposition MPs felt no activity can be allowed in Parliament unless this crisis is resolved.

A part of the Line of Control in Rajouri, Jammu and Kashmir, after a ceasefire violation by Pakistan on January 24 : PTI

While participation in the farmers’ movement at the highest level is on the cards over the next few days, senior leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday asked every political party to tell its workers to step out of their homes and sit on the road from noon to 3pm on February 6 when the farmers have given a call for a countrywide “chakka jam”.

At an all-party meeting called by Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh in Chandigarh on Tuesday, the dominant sentiment was to extend direct support to the farmers’ movement.

The meeting, boycotted by the BJP, passed a resolution asking the Centre to withdraw the three farm laws immediately and introduce a statutory provision for minimum support price. The resolution also condemned the “sponsored violence in Delhi” and demanded a judicial investigation into the laxity/complicity of the administration in the Red Fort incident. Amarinder has also hired a team of lawyers to fight the cases lodged against the protesting farmers.

The head of the Congress’s legal and human rights cell, Vivek Tankha, announced in Delhi that a committee of lawyers had been formed to give legal assistance to all the farmers and journalists who have been either arrested or to whom notices have been sent in connection with the farmers’ movement.