Amid the ongoing farmers’ agitation demanding the scrapping of the three controversial farm laws, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) leader Raju Shetti on Wednesday announced that he would take out a farmers’ morcha to the Ambani group’s office at Bandra-Kurla Complex in north-central Mumbai December 22 to register their protest against the Centre’s efforts to impose pro-Ambani-Adani agricultural policies on farmers.
Talking to media persons in Pune, Shetti said that the farmers owing affiliation to four organisations – SSS, Peasants and Workers’ Party (PWP), Prahar and Lok Sangarsh Samiti (LSS) – would march from the Mumbai Suburban collector’s office to the Ambani group’s office at BKC on Tuesday next.
“If the Modi government goes ahead and crushes the farmers’ agitation in a manner it is doing, then it will have to pay a heavy price for it. The BJP-led Government has hatched a conspiracy to hand over its food grain godowns to Ambanis and Adanis. The Government should realise that it is not just Ambani and Adani, the farmers also live in this country,” Shetti said.
Shetti charged that the Modi government was thrusting the three farm bills down the farmers’ throats to subserve the interests of the Ambanis and Adanis.
“No wonder that the Modi government is not taking serious cognisance of the ongoing farmers’ agitation. We are taking out a morcha from the Mumbai Suburban Collector’s office to Ambani Estate at BKC on December 22 to register our protests against the manner in which the Modi government has bulldozed the farm bill to favour Ambanis and Adanis,” Shetti said.
Giving details of the farmers’ protests in the run-up to the morcha to the Ambani group’s office in Mumbai, Shetti said: “The farmers’ ongoing agitation has evoked tremendous response across the country. As many as 30 farmers have died as part of the ongoing agitation. It is in this backdrop that on the evening of December 20, farmers will light candles in each village of the state to pay homage to the farmers who have so far died during the agitation. On that evening, the farmers will take an oath to make the ongoing farmers’ agitation a success”.
Welcoming Dalit leader and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi.president Prakash Ambedkar’s decision to join the morcha being organised by in Mumbai on December 22, Shetti said: “We (Ambedkar and I) may have ideological differences, but it is nice of him (Prakash Ambedkar) to have joined us for the farmers’ cause. I welcome his decision”.
The morcha planned by Shetti is the second farmers’ protest against the farm bills in Maharashtra. On December 8, farmers across the state had joined the “Bharat Bandh” organised by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents – Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, CPI, CPM, Dalit parties, political outfits linked to farmer organisations, students organisations and the Trade Unions and bank unions.