Rahul Gandhi: Farmers cannot even come to Delhi to air grievances

Rahul Gandhi

Congress president Rahul Gandhi Tuesday accused the BJP of "brutally beating up" farmers at the Delhi border on International Day of Non-Violence and said that they cannot even air their grievances in the national capital.

Gandhi's remarks came after farmers marching towards Delhi as part of the Bharatiya Kisan Union's (BKU) protest call over demands ranging from farm loan waiver to cut in fuel prices, were stopped at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border Tuesday with police using water cannons to disperse them.

"On International Day of Non-Violence, the BJP's two-year Gandhi Jayanti celebrations began with the brutal beating of farmers peacefully coming to Delhi. Now, the farmers cannot even air the grievances coming to the capital!" he tweeted in Hindi.

The city police had on Monday imposed prohibitory orders in east and northeast Delhi, anticipating law and order problems as thousands of BKU members were marching from Haridwar to reach the national capital.

Last month, Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal, saying the country's "chowkidar" (watchman) had committed "chori" (theft) and spoken on various issues but not on the deal to purchase fighter jets from France.

Addressing a gathering in his constituency here, he also accused Modi of not fulfilling his promises to youth, farmers and other sections and urged people to vote out the BJP-led government. Gandhi targeted the Modi government over the frauds related to fugitive offenders Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi. He said Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had initially said she would reveal the price of Rafale fighter jet but later declined to do so.

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