While on their march to submit a memorandum to President Kovind, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi and several other leaders were taken into custody by the Delhi Police, news agency ANI reported. "Any dissent against this govt is classified as having elements of terror. We are undertaking this march to voice our support for the farmers," ANI had reported Priyanka as saying.
The Congress has been supporting the farmers agitation and seeking the withdrawal of the Central farm legislations. A delegation of Congress leaders led by the former party chief was set to meet the president today, with around 2 crore farmers' signature collected from across the country.
"A delegation of Congress MPs and leaders led by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be submitting a memoranda of appeal bearing these 2 crore signatures to the president on December 24, urging his intervention for annulling the three black laws," AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal said in a statement.
He said the Congress party had launched a nationwide campaign for collecting memoranda of appeals addressed to the president of India signed by the farmers, farm labourers and other stakeholders opposing these legislations right from the initial stage of introduction of these bills in Parliament.
Lakhs of farmers have been protesting in the freezing weather against the three "blatantly anti-agriculture" laws aimed at "bartering their interests in the hands of select crony capitalist friends of the [Narendra] Modi government", the AICC general secretary said.
The protesting farmers have been blocked from entering the national capital for the last 27 days despite prior notice and peaceful intent, he alleged.
