Emotions remain high as the protests by farmers’ groups in Delhi continue, and prominent faces of opposition to the Narendra Modi government have voiced support for the stir.
Chandra Shekar Azad, chief of the Bhim Army dalit group, reached the protest site of the farmers on the Ghazipur border on Tuesday. On Monday, hundreds of Bhim Army activists joined the protests by the Bharatiya Kisan Union at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border. Times Now quoted Azad as saying the three contentious farm laws passed by the Centre aimed to snatch the land of poor farmers.
Bilkis Bano, who became known as one of the faces of the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act during protests at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi late last year, has also voiced support for the farmers' protests. Bilkis Bano, who became known as the Shaheen Bagh Dadi (grandmother), declared the farmers had supported the Shaheen Bagh stir, and "now it is our turn," NDTV reported. "We are daughters of farmers, we'll go to support farmers' protest today. We will raise our voice, the government should listen to us," Bano was quoted as saying by ANI.
Media reports said Bano was travelling to join protesters at Singhu.
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The move by Bilkis Bano to join the farmers' protest comes days after BJP leaders had alleged the stir was being "hijacked" by "pro-Pakistan" and "pro-Khalistan" forces.
"People associated with the stir in Shaheen Bagh have also joined the agitating farmers," Dushyant Kumar Gautam, a BJP general secretary in Uttarakhand, told reporters on Sunday.
