Rahul Gandhi supports Rihanna's tweet on farmers, blames govt for sustained protests

During his visit to his Lok Sabha Constituency Wayanad on Monday, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi hailed international pop-star Rihanna for questioning the farm laws in India. 

He said, "The entire world can see the difficulty faced by Indian farmers but the Govt in Delhi is unable to understand the pain of the farmers. We have pop stars who are commenting on the situation of the farmers, but the Indian Government is not interested."

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Rahul refused to comment earlier 

However, earlier this month, Rahul Gandhi had refused to wade into Rihanna's take on the farmers' stir. Tweeting on the agitation against the three farm laws and the suspension of the internet at the protest sites a day earlier, she had questioned, "why aren’t we talking about this?! #FarmersProtest." This was followed by environmental activist Greta Thunberg and US Vice President Kamala Harris's niece Meena Harris expressing their support for the farmers' cause in India. 

While the Ministry of External Affairs dubbed such comments as "neither accurate nor responsible", the Wayanad MP had commented that he was "not interested" in this controversy. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had issued a statement and said that before rushing to comment on such matters, it urges that facts are ascertained and proper understanding of issues at hand be undertaken. 

The Centre has so far held 11 rounds of talks with the protesting farmers, with the top court of the country forming a panel to encourage further talks on the reforms. Moreover, just days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended an olive branch to the community, assuring that he was only one-call away if they wanted to hold any further discussions on the three Farm Laws.

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