Madhura Swaminathan, daughter of daughter agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan who was recently conferred with the Bharat Ratna posthumously, said farmers cannot be treated like criminals.
Slamming Haryana government's crackdown on the protest, she pointed out that farmers are "our annadatas". Madhura said that farmers should be taken along if "we have to continue to honour M.S. Swaminathan."
She was addressing an event at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) to celebrate the highest civilian award honour for her father.
"There are jails being prepared for them in Haryana, there are barricades, there are all kinds of things being done to prevent them," she added. "These are farmers, they are not criminals."
Haryana police cracked down on protests by farmers from Punjab who tried to break past barricades stopping their march to Delhi by hurling tear gas shells, some of them dropped by a drone.
Farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said, "In the history of India, today is a black day. It is shameful the way the Modi government attacked farmers and farm labourers."
