Farmers’ protest march: Athletes have said that they will even join farmers in their protest in Delhi.
Jallandhar:
A group of Punjab’s top athletes and coaches said today that they will return all their medals and awards and lay siege to Delhi in solidarity with the state’s farmers protesting against three of the central government’s controversial agricultural ordinances.
They were particularly angered by the government’s use of force against protesting farmers and said they will head to Delhi on December 5, where they will place their awards outside the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
“We are the children of farmers and they have been maintaining a peaceful unrest for the past months. There was not a single incident of violence. But water cannons and tear gas projectiles were used against them as they headed to Delhi,” Olympic said. hockey player and Arjuna recipient, Sajjan Singh Cheema. Today I was speaking to the media at the Jalandhar Press Club.
“If the turbans of our elders and brothers are thrown away, what will we do with our awards and honors? We support our farmers. We do not want such awards and that is why we return them,” said Mr. Cheema.
He was accompanied by Padma Shri-awarded wrestler Kartar Singh, Olympic gold medalist, hockey player Gurmail Singh, who was also awarded Arjuna, and former Indian hockey captain Rajbir Kaur, often referred to as “Girl from gold”.
“All the Padma and Arjuna awards, all the medals will be returned by the Punjab athletes … it will be around 150,” said another of the speakers at the press conference.
Over the past week, thousands of farmers, braving water cannons, tear gas and barricades from the Haryana police, came to Delhi’s borders to protest against new laws passed by the Narendra Modi government in September. While some of them made it into the city, the rest are sitting in the border areas, saying they are ready to do whatever it takes to see the end of the three farm laws passed by parliament earlier this year.
Several politicians, including Rahul Gandhi from Congress and Mayawati from BSP, have already spoken out in support of the protesting farmers, saying the government should talk to them and withdraw the new laws.
Several Punjab pop artists, such as Diljit Dosanjh and Harbhajan Mann, have tweeted their support for the unrest. Mann, a Canadian-Indian film actor and producer, even posted multiple photos from the protest using hashtags like #kisanandolan and #FarmersDilliChalo.
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