India / Bilkis Dadi detained on reaching Singhu border to join farmers' protest

New Delhi: 82-year-old Bilkis Bano, also known as the "Dadi" of Shaheen Bagh protests fame, was detained by the Delhi Police on Tuesday after she joined the agitating farmers at the Singhu border to raise her voice against the recently enacted contentious farm laws.

“We are the daughters of farmers... We will raise our voice, the government should listen to us,” Bano was quoted as saying by news agency ANI, earlier.

Responding to a question posed by a media network, "Dadi" said that she was going to provide solidarity to the "kisan bhai" (an intimate term to refer to the farmers as 'brothers'), who are urging the administration to listen to their demands.

Two months ago, Bilkis "dadi" was felicitated at an event on Tuesday after she was listed among the 100 most influential people of 2020 by Time Magazine.

She was one of the icons of the Shaheen Bagh protest, which became the epicentre of the anti-CAA protests as women with young children staged a sit-in there for over three months. The protest was called off in view of the coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekar Azad also on Tuesday joined the protesting farmers at the Delhi-Ghazipur border along with hundreds of his supporters and demanded that the new farms laws be withdrawn immediately.

Even as farmers of Punjab and Haryana continued to rally at Singhu and Tikari border entry points, scores of Uttar Pradesh farmers gathered at Ghazipur on the Delhi-Ghazipur border on Sunday morning in their bid to enter the national capital.

Earlier in the day, farmer unions decided to attend a meeting with the Centre as protesters continued their agitation at Delhi border points against the government's new farm laws.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Monday had invited leaders of farmer unions for talks on Tuesday, instead of December 3, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and cold.

"In our meeting, we have decided to accept the central government's offer to hold talks at 3 pm today. Representatives of protesting farmers will attend the meeting with Union ministers," farmer leader Baljeet Singh Mahal said.

Thousands of farmers stayed put at various Delhi border points for the sixth consecutive day on Tuesday protesting against the new farm laws, which they fear will dismantle the minimum support price system and corporatise farming.