Our farmers being ill-treated by police in your state, release them: Karnataka CM writes to MP CM

Bengaluru, Feb 15: Days after a group of farmers from Karnataka travelling to Delhi for the ‘Dilli Chalo’ farmers’ protest were detained by the Madhya Pradesh Police, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday sought the intervention of his MP counterpart Mohan Yadav.

According to the farmers, they were detained by the police in the early hours of Monday as the train they were travelling in to reach Delhi approached the Bhopal railway station. Prominent farmer leaders such as Badagalapura Nagendra and Kuruburu Shanthakumar were among those from different parts of Karnataka who were stopped by the Bhopal police.

In his letter to the Madhya Pradesh CM, Siddaramaiah said the detention of the farmers was a violation of their constitutional rights. “It has been four days since the farmers were detained and yet they have not been released. It is now learnt your police authorities are shifting them to Varanasi. Travelling to Delhi to participate in a peaceful protest is the constitutional right of the people,” the Karnataka CM said in his letter.

“It is highly unfortunate that farmers who are seeking better policies are being arrested and ill-treated by police authorities in Madhya Pradesh. I request you to personally look into this and get the farmers released without shifting them from place to place,” he said.

Soon after the farmers were detained in Bhopal, Siddaramaiah lashed out at the Madhya Pradesh government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for trying to suppress the farmers’ struggle.

Siddaramaiah said on social media platform X that the Narendra Modi government’s action against farmer protests might only lead to more farmers taking to the streets. “Looking at the current actions of Narendra Modi’s government, it seems their main aim is to intimidate the farmers into submission,” Siddaramaiah had said.