Rahul Gandhi on Monday asked the citizens to decide who they are standing with — the farmers who feed them or Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s capitalist friends.

Arguing in a video message that patriotism is protecting the country’s strength, which is the farmers, Rahul tweeted: “The farmers have come to Delhi’s border, leaving their homes and farms in this winter to protest against the black laws. You have to decide where you stand in this battle of truth and untruth: With the farmers who feed you or the Prime Minister’s capitalist friends?”

The Congress ran a daylong “Speak Up For Farmers” campaign on different social media platforms, posting videos and messages giving details about the new farm laws and quotes from farmers across the country. Thousands of Congress leaders and workers participated in the campaign, which trended on Twitter nationally with around 1.5 lakh tweets.

Participating in the campaign, Rahul said: “The critical question is why are the farmers out in the streets? Why have they come to Delhi walking thousands of kilometers? Narendra Modi says these three laws are in the interest of the farmers. If that is true, why are farmers angry? Why aren’t they happy? These laws are for two or three friends of Narendra Modi. These laws are meant to steal from farmers. That’s why we all have to stand with India’s strength; we have to stand with farmers.”

He also appealed to Congressmen across the country to extend whatever help possible to the farmers. The Youth Congress has not only made arrangements for the farmers’ stay at its central office in Delhi, they are also distributing cooked food packets and other essential items among the farmers stranded at Uttar Pradesh and Haryana borders.

The Youth Congress has opened temporary clinics at protest sites where doctors are treating farmers free of cost.

The party also criticised the Prime Minister for misleading the nation on the new laws despite their complete rejection by all the farmer unions. Congress’s Randeep Surjewala responded to Modi’s renewed attempt to justify the laws saying: “How can the Prime Minister use lies and falsehood to defend the laws, which have triggered such a mass movement of farmers all over the country? Why are you using police force, tear gas, water cannons, barbed wires and false allegations to break their resolve? Why have you hatched this conspiracy to harm the farmers of the country?”

Several Congress leaders used pet symbols of BJP — such as patriotism and Sardar Patel — to expose their hypocrisy in dealing with the farmers. They asked if maligning the farming community, which forms more than half of the population, calling them terrorists and using force to crush their voices were part of the BJP’s patriotic acts. They asked if Indian democracy didn’t allow space for farmers to express their resentment and whether they don’t deserve a conversation.

“Meaning of democracy is respect for the voice of every citizen. Ministers are elected representatives of the people and they don’t own the country. They have to act per their will,” one video said.

Many leaders pointed out that the government should not create problems for the farmers if it can’t reward them for ensuring food safety for the nation with their blood and toil. Arguing that farmers were living in wretched poverty, not even getting input costs for their yield at times, some leaders said they didn’t only feed the nation but sent their sons to the army to defend the borders. “The Modi government couldn’t wait for Parliament and introduced the black laws without discussion through ordinance, but they want farmers to wait on the road in this winter chill till December 3 to start negotiations,” one leader said.

Many leaders pointed to the irony of the BJP’s desperation to appropriate the legacy of Sardar Patel who was a farmers’ leader.

Shiv Sena in its mouthpiece Saamna also heaped scorn on the BJP, writing in its editorial on Monday, “Modi and Shah built the statue of Sardar Patel in Gujarat. That statue would have shed tears seeing the plight of the farmers on the Delhi border over the past few days. Sardar was a farmers’ leader. While Modi denied entry to the farmers in Delhi, the BJP government in Haryana committed the inhuman act of using water cannons on the peaceful protesters in this winter.”