Swaraj India national president Yogendra Yadav on Tuesday claimed that the Haryana police detained around a dozen farmer leaders across the State in a major crackdown ahead of farmer groups’ call for ‘Dilli Chalo’ on November 26 to protest against the farm laws that were recently passed.
In a live video on his Facebook page around 10-30 a.m., Mr. Yadav claimed that he had been getting calls from his friends and farmers leaders involved in the preparations for the ‘Dilli Chalo’ programme that more than a dozen farmer leaders were detained across several districts in raids from 12 midnight till 5 a.m.
“All those detained have been lodged at police stations. No charges have been levelled against them. When the government fails to find any way out from a situation, it resorts to a crackdown,” said Mr. Yadav.
Reading out the names of those detained, Mr. Yadav appealed to all citizens, citizen groups and political leaders to stand against this act of suppression by the government. He claimed that leaders from Hisar, Jhajjar, Bhiwani, Sirsa and Karnal were detained.
Mr. Yadav, however, added that the farmer groups would go ahead with their protest on November 26. “I will be reaching Gurugram around noon and then proceed to Nuh to mobilise farmers for the ‘Dilli Chalo’ programme,” said Mr. Yadav. He expressed apprehensions of similar police action in other States as well.
Repeated phone calls and messages to several senior police officers, including the Superintendents of Police of various districts, to seek their response on the matter went unanswered.
