Arrested Karnataka farmers ‘ill-treated’, claims Siddaramaiah in letter to MP CM

BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday wrote to his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Mohan Yadav over the arrest of some Hubballi farmers in that state, seeking his intervention in the matter.

The letter from the Karnataka CM comes days after farmers from the southern state, who were marching to the national capital in response to the ‘Dilli Chalo’ call, claimed to have been detained by the Madhya Pradesh Police.

The farmers alleged that they were detained in the early hours of Monday as their Delhi-bound train approached the Bhopal railway station.

“A group of farmers from Karnataka travelling from Bengaluru to Delhi to participate in a protest against the anti-farmer policies of the Central government have been detained in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh without any reason”, Siddaramaiah stated in his letter to his Madhya Pradesh counterpart.

ದೆಹಲಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ರೈತ ಪ್ರತಿಭಟನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಗವಹಿಸಲು ತೆರಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ರಾಜ್ಯದ ರೈತರನ್ನು ಮಧ್ಯಪ್ರದೇಶ ಸರ್ಕಾರ ಬಂಧಿಸಿ ಜೈಲಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಇಟ್ಟಿರುವುದು ಸಂವಿಧಾನ ಬಾಹಿರ ಕ್ರಮ.
ನಾಡಿನ ರೈತರನ್ನು ಈ ಕೂಡಲೆ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಮಾಡಬೇಕು ಎಂದು ಮಧ್ಯಪ್ರದೇಶದ ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಮೋಹನ್ ಯಾದವ್ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಈ ಮೂಲಕ ಒತ್ತಾಯಿಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೇನೆ.… pic.twitter.com/JrUPqaU2ag

— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) February 15, 2024

“It is four days since our farmers have been detained and yet they have not been released. It is now learnt that your police authorities are shifting them to Varanasi. Travelling to Delhi to participate in a peaceful protest is the Constitutional right of the people. It is highly unfortunate that farmers who are seeking better policies are being arrested and ill-treated by police authorities in Madhya Pradesh”, CM Siddaramaiah added in his letter.

Urging the MP chief minister to personally intervene in securing their release, the senior Congress leader wrote, “I request you to personally look into this and immediately get the farmers released without shifting them from place to place.”

Earlier, taking to his personal handle on X, CM Siddaramaiah condemned the arrests of farmers and blamed the BJP-ruled central government for ‘unfairly intimidating’ them.

Farmers from across the country have been demonstrating on the Delhi borders, seeking to step up the heat on the Centre over a host of demands, including a separate legislation guaranteeing Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce and the withdrawal of police cases lodged against them during an earlier protest.

With the talks with Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Arjun Munda failing to yield a breakthrough, the protests have continued unabated. (ANI)