The Delhi Police has imposed Section 144 outside the Congress party headquarters at 24 Akbar Road in the national capital on Thursday ahead of Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi's march to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Congress party had announced that Rahul Gandhi will submit a list of around two crore signatures urging the repeal of the farm laws to President Ram Nath Kovind. The former Congress chief is at the party headquarters already along with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and several senior Congress leaders can be seen at the location, including Anand Sharma, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, all of whom are sitting in a massive circle. 

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Congress to meet President

Congress party had in its statement said that party delegation led by Rahul Gandhi will meet President Ram Nath Kovind and shall urge the intervention of the President for annulling The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. Observing that this legislation has caused immense anguish, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal mentioned that 44 farmers had already lost their lives during the ongoing protests. 

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In a statement, Venugopal claimed that the Centre had "duped" the farmers' unions by putting on a conciliatory face. Maintaining that the Union government was only committed to the welfare of the corporates, he alleged that public money was being used to create false propaganda in favour of the agrarian laws and discredit the protesting farmers. Moreover, he accused the Centre of insulting the farmers and undemocratically suspending opposition parliamentarians. Nearly two weeks ago, a 5-member delegation of opposition leaders comprising Congress' Rahul Gandhi, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary D Raja and DMK leader TKS Elangovan met the President seeking the revocation of the farm laws. 

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Sharad Pawar-led delegation meets with President

A 5-member delegation of opposition leaders led by Sharad Pawar had met the President earlier and Rahul Gandhi had then said, "We informed the President that it is absolutely critical that these anti-farmer laws are withdrawn. These laws are against farmers who are on a non-violent protest against the three new laws. If the farm laws are for the benefit of farmers, then Prime Minister Narendra Modi should explain why they are protesting. These laws would not benefit the farmers." The former Congress chief also alleged that the three bills were passed without any discussion or conversation with the opposition parties or with farmers.

The memorandum submitted by the Opposition leaders stated, “These new agriculture laws, passed in Parliament in an anti-democratic manner preventing a structured discussion and voting, threaten India’s food security, destroy Indian agriculture and our farmers, lay the basis for the abolishment of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and mortgage Indian agriculture and our markets to the caprices of multinational agri-business corporates and domestic corporates. We urge upon you, as the custodian of the Indian Constitution, to persuade your government not to be obdurate and accept the demands raised by India's annadatas."

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