New Delhi: After Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait's teary-eyed video from the Ghazipur stage went viral, as farmers poured in from all over north India to join him, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said that the Aam Aadmi Party fully backs the farmers' movement, adding that it was completely wrong to brand agitating farmers as traitors.
Kejriwal was responding to a tweet from an unverified account of farmer leader Rakesh Tikait in which he had thanked him for making arrangements for water and other utilities at the Ghazipur border for farmers after the UP government and Ghaziabad administration had cut off the supply of essential items to the protesters.
"Rakesh ji, we are fully with the farmers. Your demands are valid. It is completely wrong to discredit the farmers' movement, call the farmers traitors and to make false cases against the farmer leaders who have been agitating peacefully for so many days," Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.
Meanwhile, on Friday Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia visited the Ghazipur border site to make sure all utilities being arranged by his government are reaching the agitating farmers. Talking to reporters, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said the farmers' protest has the full support of the Delhi government.
"The AAP supports the protesting farmers and I have come here to check the arrangements made by the Delhi government. I have checked the arrangements of drinking water, toilets and other basic amenities for the farmers," he said.
Sisodia said farmer leader Rakesh Tikait had spoken to CM Arvind Kejriwal and asked for basic amenities. "On the orders of the chief minister, the arrangements were made at night," he said.
However, even as the Delhi government was able to reach the farmers protesting at the Ghazipur border site, Water Minister Satyendar Jain and Delhi Jal Board Vice-Chairman Raghav Chadha were prevented from taking water tankers for protesters at the Singhu border by law enforcement officials, who later in the day, did not prevent a group of people claiming to be "locals" from entering the site and pelting stones at the farmers.