Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, Saturday visited Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, where farmers have been staging protest for 78 days against the Centre’s three new farm legislations and lent her support to their agitation, news agency PTI reported.
Addressing the media at Ghazipur, Gandhi said, “We are because of you all. In the benefit of farmers lies the benefit of the country and all of us,” she said.
“I want that whatever happens, farmers should be benefitted by it. Nobody is unaware of the hard work that the farmers do and it is not to be said again that in the benefit of farmers lies the benefit of our country, and all of us,” she added.
According to the statement by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), which was accessed by PTI, the 84-year-old urged farmers to remain peaceful in their protest and asked the government to “take care” of the farming community.
Gandhi, who is also the chairperson of National Gandhi Museum, was joined by Gandhi Smarak Nidhi chairman Ramchandra Rahi, All-India Sarv Seva Sangha managing trustee Ashok Saran, Gandhi Smarak Nidhi director Sanjay Singha and National Gandhi Museum director A Annamalai.
“We have not come here as part of any political programme. We have come here today for the farmers, who have fed all of us our whole life,” she said.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are camping at different borders of Delhi since November last year in protest against the three farm laws enacted by the Centre.
While the farmers claim that the new laws and lack of a law on MSP would hurt their livelihoods, the government has maintained that the legislations are pro-farmer and would increase their income.
