AAP leader and spokesperson Raghav Chadha Monday said whoever is calling the farmers protesting against the new agriculture-marketing laws as “anti-nationals” are themselves against the country, and they should go to Pakistan. The AAP MLA said there are some people referring to the agitating farmers, who are the country’s food-providers, as “anti-nationals”. “I want to tell those people calling the farmers as anti-national that you are the ones who are anti-nationals and you should go to Pakistan. They have no place in India,” Chadha said.
Reacting to Chadha’s comments, Delhi BJP spokesperson Virender Babbar said everybody supports farmers, including the BJP. “Chadha should tell what would you call those who talk about killing the prime minister and demand the release of people arrested under sedition charge,” Babbar said. Several Union ministers have repeatedly alleged that the farmers’ protests have been hijacked by Maoists, Leftists and anti-national elements, a charge denied by the farmers’ union leaders spearheading the agitation.
On Sunday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also expressed his anguish over the issue, saying that some Central ministers and BJP leaders were labelling protesting farmers as “traitors and anti-nationals”. “I want to ask them, if so many ex-servicemen, sportspersons of national and international level, singers and celebrities, lawyers and traders supporting and joining the farmers, are all anti-national?” he questioned.
The farmers have been camping at several border points of Delhi for close to three weeks now against the three farm laws enacted by the Centre in September. The three farm laws have been projected by the Central government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country. However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of MSP and do away with the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.
