Madhura Swaminathan, daughter of agricultural scientist MS Swaminathan, said that farmers cannot be treated like criminals amid their 'Delhi Chalo' agitation.
She was speaking at an event on Tuesday to commemorate the conferment of the Bharat Ratna to her late father.
"The farmers of Punjab today are marching to Delhi. I believe, according to the newspaper reports, there are jails being prepared for them in Haryana, there are barricades, there are all kinds of things being done to prevent them," said Swaminathan at the memorial lecture at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI).
"These are farmers, they are not criminals," she continued to say before being applauded by the audience. She added that "we have to talk to our annadatas; we have to find solutions."
"This is my request. I think if we have to continue and honour M.S. Swaminathan, we have to take the farmers with us in whatever strategy we're planning for the future," she concluded.
Swaminathan is the head of the Economic Analysis Unit at the Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru. She took part in the event through video conferencing.
The event also saw Soumya Swaminathan, the former Chief Scientist at the WHO and other daughter of MS Swaminathan, highlighting her father's approach to research.
She noted that he consistently employed a blend of participatory and anticipatory research methodologies, involving those who would be directly impacted by his studies. Moreover, he had a proactive stance, foreseeing potential future challenges and proactively seeking solutions for them.
Various farmer groups are currently participating in a march to Delhi to press for their demands, including the implementation of a law to guarantee minimum support price (MSP) for crops. The protesting farmers' groups are largely from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
Police in Haryana fired tear gas against the protesters on Tuesday and police in the capital have barricaded the city using razor wire, concrete blocks and fencing to prevent the farmers from reaching there.
Some farmers have also alleged that the police fired rubber bullets at them.
The developments come days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the Union government was posthumously conferring the Bharat Ratna to MS Swaminathan “in recognition of his monumental contributions to our nation in agriculture and farmers’ welfare”.
MS Swaminathan is recognised for leading the Green Revolution in India, which saw the adoption of technologies that increased crop yields and alleviated the country’s food scarcity problems.
