Bilkis Dadi Detained As She Joins Farmers’ Protest

FILE PHOTO: “We are the daughters of farmers... We will raise our voice, the government should listen to us,” Bilkis Bano said

Bilkis Bano, the 82-year-old who earned the moniker “Dadi of Shaheen Bagh”, was detained by police on Tuesday as she joined farmers protesting against the recently enacted farm laws at the Singhu Border in Delhi.

“We are the daughters of farmers… We will raise our voice, the government should listen to us,” Bano said earlier, news agency ANI reported.

Bano, along with two other grandmothers, emerged as the face of NRC-CAA protests earlier this year. Her husband died about 11 years ago and she currently lives in Shaheen Bagh with her daughters-in-law and grandchildren.

Thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana are protesting against the three farm laws passed by Parliament in September. They have been camping in and around Delhi demanding that the laws be taken back by the Centre.

The Centre has invited representatives of farmer groups for the next round of talks today. The talks were initially scheduled for Thursday but they got pre-poned after Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Home Minister Amit Shah met twice on Monday to discuss the issue.

Farmers are protesting against the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Service Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.