Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday asked the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh government to immediately release farmers from Karnataka, who were heading to participate in a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Tuesday.
“The arrest of Hubballi farmers by the Madhya Pradesh government, as they were heading to a protest in Delhi tomorrow, is highly condemnable.
I demand that the Madhya Pradesh government immediately release all the farmers from our state who have been arrested and allow them to participate in the protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi tomorrow,” he said.
Siddaramaiah said although the arrests were made by the MP government, the criminal brain behind it is the BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“By arresting and intimidating them, the farmers’ struggle cannot be suppressed. Such repression might only lead more farmers to take to the streets, but the struggle of the sons and daughters of the soil will not cease,” he said.
“If the central government truly cares about peace and order, it should immediately meet the demands of the farmers and resolve the issue, rather than repressing and brutalizing them to silence,” the CM said.
Whether it’s at the Centre or in the states, whenever BJP comes to power, history bears witness that their first act of aggression is against the farmers, Siddaramaiah alleged.
The first time BJP came to power in Karnataka, farmers asking for fertilizer were ruthlessly shot down by the government led by BS Yediyurappa, he alleged.
Several farmers died due to the violence inflicted on protesting farmers in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh by Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre, Siddaramaiah said.
“Looking at the current actions of Narendra Modi’s government, it seems their main aim is to intimidate the farmers into submission,” he said.
