Rahul Gandhi to lead Congress demonstration, meet President again over farm laws

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will lead a demonstration from Vijay Chowk to Rashtrapati Bhavan against Centre’s Farm Laws. Gandhi and other senior leaders will then meet the President of India and submit a memorandum containing two crore signatures seeking his intervention in the ongoing protests by farmers against the Farm Acts.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that his party leaders will march to Rashtrapati Bhavan. “We want the government to atone for their complete lack of consulting farmers before passing these bills. “I think the President has an important moral role in encouraging and guiding the government to not stand on their legislative pride,” he said while speaking to ANI.

Congress delegation led by Shri @RahulGandhi, Leaders of the Party in Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha, Senior Party members & MPs assemble to meet the Hon’ble President of India at Rashtrapati Bhawan shortly. pic.twitter.com/zvfbkmDvxl

— Congress (@INCIndia) December 24, 2020

This is the second time Rahul Gandhi is going to meet President Ram Nath Kovind over Farm Laws. On December 9, a five-member delegation comprising opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri, CPI General Secretary D Raja and DMK leader TKS Elangovan had gone to meet the President. They sought the President’s intervention into the ongoing standoff between the Centre and farmers who have been demanding the withdrawal of the Farm Laws.

Almost all opposition parties including Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP have come out in support of farmers, saying their demands are genuine and should be considered by the Centre. The government has, however, has said that it has done what was promised by the opposition parties in their manifestos and that their protest is now just for the sake of politics.

Additional DCP (New Delhi) Deepak Yadav, however, said that no permission has been granted for the march to Rashtrapati Bhavan. However, three leaders, who have an appointment at Rashtrapati Bhavan, will be allowed to go.