‘These Are All of Our Issues’: Meena Harris on Farmers’ Protests

Meena had voiced her solidarity with the farmers after Rihanna posted a tweet on the internet crackdown in Delhi.

Meena Harris

(Photo: The Quint/Twitter)

Resisting the wave of attacks she’s been subjected to by the extreme right-wing, American lawyer Meena Harris, who is the niece of US Vice President Kamala Harris, shared more tweets shedding light on farmers’ agitation against the central government’s three farm laws. She said they were "our issues" as well.

She wrote, “This isn’t just about agricultural policy. It’s also about the persecution of a vocal religious minority. It’s police violence, militant nationalism, and attacks on labour rights. It’s global authoritarianism. Don’t tell me to stay out of your affairs. These are all of our issues.”

Meena had voiced her solidarity with the farmers after singer-actor Rihanna posted tweet talking about the Internet crackdown in Delhi-NCR. As a consequence, members of the Hindu United Front, a fringe right-wing group, gathered to burn photos of these women in protest.

Speaking of this reaction, she said, “Weird to see a photo of yourself burned by an extremist mob but imagine what they would do if we lived in India.”

“23 yo labor rights activist Nodeep Kaur was arrested, tortured & sexually assaulted in police custody. She’s been detained without bail for over 20 days,” she added, using the hashtag #ReleaseNodeepKaur.

Meena Harris’ Tweet.Photo: Twitter

On Wednesday, 3 February, she had drawn links between the attack on the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, and the clamp down on farmers by the state, saying, that “It’s no coincidence that the world’s oldest democracy was attacked not even a month ago, and as we speak, the most populous democracy is under assault.”

Besides pushback from pro-farm laws groups, the Ministry of External Affairs had also put out a statement condemning the outpouring of international support, which said that these comments were “sensationalist” and “neither responsible nor accurate.”