15 oppn MPs stopped from reaching farmer protest site

GHAZIABAD: A group of 15 opposition MPs, among them former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, was on Thursday stopped from walking across the Delhi-Ghaziabad border to the farmers' agitation site at UP Gate on NH-9.


Standing near the barricades, which have been fortified with iron spikes, concertina wires and a concrete barrier built across the road, Harsimrat said it was as if protesting farmers had been imprisoned on one side of the border and opposition MPs on the other.

"I'm seeing such barricades for the first time within the country. It is impossible to meet people on the other side. Such barricading is normally seen at the border with Pakistan. I'm shocked to see it in Delhi," said Harsimrat, whose party SAD walked out of NDA last year in protest against the new farming laws.

"We were stopped by police in anti-riot gear as if we are anti-nationals and terrorists. Don't we have a right to meet farmers, many of whom have come from my state," she asked.

SAD's Sukhbir Singh Badal had earlier this week visited the UP Gate site and met Rakesh Tikait, who is leading the sit-in agitation here, to extend his party's support. Harsimrat was accompanied, among others, by NCP's Supriya Sule, DMK's Kanimozhi and Trinamool's Saugata Ray.

"We were stopped from meeting protesters. Now, we are headed straight to Parliament where we will raise the issue with the Speaker," said Sule. "We wanted to see what is happening here but we were not allowed to go to the protest site," said Kanimozhi.

The MPs, including those from NC and Left parties like RSP, arrived in a bus but had to leave within 15 minutes after a heated exchange with cops.