IYC protests against Lekhi for calling farmers 'mawalis', demands apology
Darpan News Desk IANS, 23 Jul, 2021 03:53 PM
New Delhi, July 23 (IANS) A day after Union Minister Meenakshi Lekhi described farmers as "mawalis", hundreds of Indian Youth Congress (IYC) activists on Friday staged a protest over the remark and demanded that she apologise to the farmers.
IYC workers under the leadership of their national president Srinivas BV staged a protest outside the residence of Lekhi in the national capital.
The IYC workers raised slogans against the Minister and also burned her effigy.
The protesting IYC activists were detained by the police.
The protest comes a day after Lekhi while addressing a press conference here called the protesting farmers 'mawalis' (ruffians).
However, Lekhi later claimed that her words were "twisted", but added that she withdraws her remarks if they have hurt anyone.
Speaking to the media, Srinivas condemned the remarks and said "This shows their poor thinking and mentality towards farmers of our country."
The IYC leader said that for the last eight months, the country's food producers have been fighting day and night on the borders of Delhi against the three black agricultural laws, leaving everything behind, but the BJP government of the capitalists is trying to prove them as 'mawalis'. However, the country's youth will not let the Modi government succeed in its conspiracy.
Srinivas added that farmers are not 'mawalis', they are the caretakers of this country, they are the food producers of the country.
"But the arrogance has become so dominant in the BJP that it is not missing any opportunity to insult the farmers. It is shameless of a BJP minister to call farmers 'mawalis'," he said.
He demanded that Lekhi go to the farmers sitting on the borders of Delhi and apologise to them, otherwise she should resign from her post, because the country will not tolerate the humiliation of its food producers.
IYC national media in-charge Rahul Rao said that when party colleagues came to protest against Lekhi's use of indecent language for farmers, they were detained by Delhi Police.
"Even if the government arrests us, we will continue to raise our voice against the humiliation of the food producers," he added.
Facing massive statewide agitation by farmers over power outages, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday issued directions to ensure eight-hour uninterrupted power supply and to purchase deficient power from outside the state at any cost to prevent any supply disruption in the ongoing sowing season.
Bengaluru City Police Commissioner, Kamal Pant, told reporters that the police teams were forced to open fire after firing warning shots in the air as the accused persons resisted the search teams' efforts to nab them.
On the occasion of Bhagat Kabir Ji Jayanti, the Chief Minister also announced that his government will soon disburse Rs 560 crore to the landless farm labourers under the Debt Waiver Scheme.
Custom officials at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here have seized 80 iPhones from two passengers arriving from Sharjah. They found the iPhones worth over Rs 1 crore while checking the luggage of the two passengers who had arrived by flight G9-458 on Wednesday.
The Maharashtra government on Wednesday approved Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL) to operate the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport in the adjoining Thane-Raigad region, an official said here.
The session ensued a detailed discussion about the rising air pollution as well as the steps that need to be taken up by authorities as well as the community to manage the deteriorating air quality.
