Chandigarh, Jan 19 (IANS): The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Monday appealed the government not to deny the constitutional right for a peaceful march in Delhi to law-abiding farmers of the country on January 26.

SAD's call came at the end of a three-hour meeting of the party's core committee of the party held at the party headquarters here. The party President Sukhbir Singh Badal presided over the meeting.

Giving details of the meeting, Harcharan Singh Bains, Principal Adviser to the SAD president, said the meeting considered the government's dragging of its feet over permission for the peaceful democratic march as "a grossly violative of the very Constitution which the Republic Day symbolizes".

The government, he said, could not have chosen a worse and more inappropriate day and occasion than January 26 to deny the citizens of the country their fundamental democratic right to free expression as well as the right to organize the democratic activity.

"The farmers of the country have already declared that their peaceful march would be a celebration of the spirit of the very Constitution for which the nation observes Republic Day.

"The march by farmers would in fact be a reminder that India is a democratic republic and is neither a monarchy nor dictatorial setup. The government should in fact thank the farmers and facilitate the march," said a resolution passed at the meeting.

Bains said the core committee also came down heavily against the brazen abuse of the National Investigative Agency (NIA) against farmers who have demonstrated to the world how disciplined, peaceful and democratic their genuine and totally justified protest is.

"It is really reprehensible that the government is taking resort to such draconian measures against the country's peaceful breadwinners (annadata) who have not given law enforcing agencies a single excuse in over two months to complain of any violation of peace or law and order. It is really absurd that the government sees a threat to peace and security from the law-abiding citizens."

The party called upon the government to withdraw all the notices issued to farmers and farmer leaders by the NIA.