Cong protests in UP against farm laws

In a show of solidarity to the farmers protesting near Delhi, Congress workers and leaders participated in the programme across the state by going to the residences and offices of various public representatives of the BJP. 

Congress state president Ajay Kumar Lallu and others clapped and banged on steel plates at his residence in Lucknow, the party said. 

"The farmers are staging protests at the borders of Delhi amid biting cold. So far 28 farmers have died. But, the government is indifferent to the fact that the farmers are losing their near and dear ones," Lallu said. 

"The BJP government and its public representatives are sleeping like demon king Kumbhakarna in arrogance," he said. 

Lallu accused the BJP government of imposing an undeclared emergency in the state at a time the saffron party is holding rallies in other states. 

"When the Congress workers want to stage a symbolic protest, then the Congress workers are either arrested or put under house arrest. The BJP governments at the Centre and in UP cannot suppress the voice of the farmers. Until the demands of the farmers are met, the Congress workers will continue with their protests," Lallu said. 

Congress workers were put under house arrest in Mirzapur and Lucknow, while they were detained in several districts. 

In Gorakhpur, the Congress workers, led by Gorakhpur district president Nirmala Paswan and city chief Ashutosh Tiwari, surrounded the house of BJP MLA Radha Mohan Das Agarwal. 

A heavy police force reached Agarwal's house and tried to pacify the protesters, but Paswan was adamant to hand over to the legislator the memorandum that was addressed to the governor. She handed over the memorandum to the city magistrate after police did not allow them to move further. 

Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other states have been camping at several border points into Delhi since November-end, demanding that the new farm laws be repealed as they claim it would benefit the corporates, and end the traditional wholesale markets and the minimum support price regime. 

Enacted in September, the three contentious laws have been projected by the central government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that would remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country.