In an apparent attempt to exert pressure on the Centre to repeal the three farm laws, farmers from across the country have threatened to lay a siege to New Delhi “indefinitely” if prevented from entering the national Capital.
India’s about 500 farmers’ organizations, whose representatives met in Chandigarh on Thursday under the banner of ‘Sanyukt Kisan Morcha’ to chalk out the strategy for ‘Delhi Chalo’ call for on November 26-27, made it clear that the agitation could spill over to the next year by asking the protestors to carry along with them rations for at least four months.
Undeterred by the refusal of permission to hold their protest at Ramlila Ground in Delhi, the farmers have decided to reach the national capital in lakhs on their tractors and trolleys, while identifying “five main routes” to enter Delhi.
Bhartiya Kisan Union’s president Balbir Singh Rajewal said that farmers should be allowed to stage a protest at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. “If farmers are stopped from going to Delhi, we will block all entry points to Delhi from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh for indefinite period,” he warned while adding that the protest would be “peaceful”.
“We will enter Delhi from five main national highways from the adjoining states — that is through Kundli border (National Highway 1 to Delhi – GT Road), Jaipur-Delhi highway, Agra-Delhi highway (Ballabhgarh), Rohtak-Hisar-Delhi highway (Bahadurgarh), and Bareilly-Delhi highway,” said Swaraj India’s national president Yogendra Yadav.
Yadav, who participated in the meeting as the national working group member of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), said that it was for the first time in the history of independent India that farmer organizations from all over India, cutting across party lines and ideologies, were coming together on one platform to save their livelihood and those of farm labourers and commission agents.
“The farm laws are an assault on Indian farmers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi enforced these farm laws without the consent of farmers. They are aimed at corporatization of agriculture and making farmers more vulnerable,” said Yadav, who asked the Centre to first end the ‘economic blockade’ in Punjab by allowing the goods trains to ply.
The farmers’ representatives also issued a warning to the respective State Governments that in case they were stopped from proceeding towards Delhi, they would stage indefinite protests en route.
Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh president Shiv Kumar Sharma said that Punjab took the lead in the agitation against the Central Government and “now, it is spreading across the country”.
“The farmers’ movement has already taken the shape of a people’s movement with the masses on their own boycotting the corporates and their products,” said Rajewal while urging the people to support the farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s laws which would impact all sections of society.
BKU leader Gurnam Singh Charuni reiterated the farmers’ demand to resume the goods train service in Punjab. “By not doing so, the Centre is trying to punish the farmers because they are protesting against its new farm laws,” he said.
Charuni added that the farmers across the nation are all geared up for staging protests in Delhi. “Till the time Centre would not accept our demands, we would stage dharna at Delhi. We will block the national highways and continue to gherao Delhi. I don’t know for how long our protest would continue. We have asked the farmers to bring along them enough food and ration,” he said.
The decision came after nearly eight hours long talks between Punjab farmers and the three Union Ministers ended inconclusively in Delhi on November 13, with the Centre remaining adamant on its stand of resuming both passenger and goods train service and not just the goods trains.
Farmers have been protesting against the Centre’s three new laws — The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act — which were enacted in September.
Notably, the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh and various factions of Bharatiya Kisan Union have joined hands and formed a ‘Sanyukta Kisan Morcha’ to press the Central Government to scrap the three farm laws.
The ‘morcha’ has the support of over 500 farmers’ organizations. A seven-member committee has also been formed to coordinate the operations of the ‘morcha’.