Two anti-farmer parties have joined hands, says Congress, berating AAP and BJP governments’ action against farmers

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi during the Budget Session of the Parliament, in New Delhi on Thursday (March 20, 2025).
| Photo Credit: ANI

The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi joined Congress MPs from Punjab protesting within the Parliament complex against the forcible eviction of farmers from the Sambhu and Khanauri protest sites on the Punjab border.

Attacking the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for their action against farmers, Congress president and LoP in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said two “anti-farmer” parties had joined hands.

“It appears that two anti-farmer parties have now joined hands against the country’s food providers! First the Punjab government called the farmers for talks and then forcibly removed them from the protest site,” Mr. Kharge said in a post in Hindi on social media platform X.

The Congress chief said that the forcible detention of senior farmer leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal and Sarwan Singh Pandher by the Punjab Police could not be condemned enough. He added that both the BJP and the AAP were “intoxicated” with the arrogance of power, and were guilty of actions against farmers, but the 62 crore-strong farming community would never forgive these parties.

“The country has not forgotten – Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, when farmers were fired upon during BJP rule. How the son of a minister of the Modi government crushed the farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. How a farmer from Rajasthan hanged himself in Kejriwal’s rally in 2015 and he remained a silent spectator,” Mr. Kharge said. “Whether it is Modi Ji’s promise of MSP [Minimum Support Price] to farmers or Aam Aadmi Party’s swift implementation of the three black laws in Delhi, both these parties have betrayed our farmers of the country,” he added.

In the Parliament complex, Congress MPs from Punjab staged a demonstration against the police crackdown on farmers, who were protesting at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders of the State for the past over one year.

Lok Sabha members and Congress leaders from Punjab Sukhjinder Randhawa, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Gurjit Aujla, and Dharamvir Gandhi protested outside the Makar Dwar of the Parliament, raising slogans against the AAP government in Punjab, and the BJP government at the Centre.

Mr. Gandhi joined in briefly to express solidarity with the farmers as well as his Lok Sabha colleagues.

The Congress MPs also held placards in support of the farmers’ demand for a law guaranteeing MSP for crops. Criticising Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for acting against the agitating farmers, they alleged that he was in league with the BJP.