Protesting farmer groups will observe Sadbhavna Diwas on Mahatma Gandhi’s 73rd death anniversary today with a day-long fast. The gesture comes amid a stiffening of the face-off between them and the Central government and the breakout of violence in the course of their agitation over the past week.
The fast is also the farmers’ way of reasserting the “peaceful” nature of their protest against the laws passed in September and which is joined by participants from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and other states.
“We were peaceful yesterday, today and will be peaceful tomorrow also. We invite people of this country to join us in this peaceful protest,” Krantikari Kisan Union leader Darshan Pal told PTI yesterday.
Their protest has been wracked by multiple instances of violence over the past many days, which the farmers assert were a result of the government’s moves to misrepresent the entire agitation and break it up eventually. However, they claimed that the protest has only gained strength now, with many more farmers reaching out in support and physically joining them at the many protest venues around Delhi.
Addressing a press conference at the Delhi-Haryana border point in Singhu the leaders slammed the ruling BJP at the Centre, accusing it of trying to “destroy” the “peaceful” agitation.
