Punjab lawmakers' protests at Jantar Mantar complete one month

As farmer's protests continue on the borders of the national capital, four lawmakers from Punjab have been soldiering on for a month with their own roadside protest at Jantar Mantar demanding rollback of the agriculture reforms.

Lok Sabha members from Punjab Ravneet Singh Bittu, Jasbir Singh Gill and Gurdeep Singh Aujla and MLA Kulbir Singh Zira have been staying put at Jantar Mantar – day and night – since December 6 to express solidarity with the agitating farmers.

“We will continue till the farm laws are withdrawn,” Gill, a Lok Sabha member from Khadoor Sahib, said from the pavement outside Jantar Mantar, which has been barricaded by the Delhi Police.

The lawmakers started their own protests to express solidarity with the agitating farmers – mostly from Punjab – began their protests at the Singhu and Tikri borders of Delhi from November 26.

The agitating farmers have refused political parties from sharing their stage in their bid to project the apolitical nature of their protests.

The four lawmakers have been receiving support from their fellow party leaders who have been visiting them regularly to keep up their morale.

A delegation of leaders from Punjab led by state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar visited the protest site on Christmas Day.

The families of the four lawmakers were at the protest site on December 31 to ring in the new year amid reciting hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib.

The protest site has been frequented by party colleagues such as Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid, Sushmita Dev, K C Venugopal, Pawan Kumar Bansal among others.