The police on Monday detained Bharatiya Janata Party leaders L K Advani and Rajnath Singh after they led farmers for a march to Parliament in protest against government's agricultural policies.
Advani, Singh and other party leaders were briefly detained near Delhi's Ambedkar Stadium after they addressed the rally.
"They were set free after 30 minutes," BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. "The country's farmers urgently require a new deal, but it seems that the government is busy with other deals," said a BJP memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, signed by party leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Advani, Jaswant Singh and Rajnath Singh.
The remark was in reference to the Indo-US nuclear pact. In his address, the former deputy prime minister raised concerns over farmers' suicides, saying crushing debts were forcing farmers to kill themselves even in prosperous states like Punjab.
Advani, who criticised the government for its economic policies, insisted that the talk of high growth became meaningless in the face of huge disparities. The BJP leader said irrigation and rural economy required investment and spoke about the need to ensure food security in the country. In its memorandum, the BJP warned that the farm sector would collapse if no measures were taken to address the crisis immediately.
The BJP also sought a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the import orders for wheat at a price higher than the one the government had rejected in May this year.
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