News Analysis India

Tag: farmer protests

  • Nothing can be more insulting: Congress on minister’s continuation on 1st anniversary of Lakhimpur Kheri violence

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: On the first anniversary of Lakhimpur Kheri violence, the Congress on Monday attacked the Modi government over the continuation of Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’ as a minister as it cited the alleged involvement of his son in mowing down of farmers protesting against the three farm laws that have now been repealed.

    “Nothing can be more insulting that the farmers agitating against the black laws were deliberately killed while the culprit remains a member of the Union council of ministers,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh told reporters.

    There was clear evidence that the minister’s son was involved in the killing, he alleged.

    Mishra’s son Ashish Misra was arrested in the case after four farmers were crushed under the wheels of a convoy of cars and four others, including two BJP workers, were killed in apparently retaliatory violence.

    The Congress also reiterated its support to the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, which had spearheaded the farmers’ agitation against three farm laws, especially its demand for a legal guarantee to the minimum support price for farm produce.

    Bowing to the protests, the government had scrapped the laws.

    ALSO READ | How long will PM continue to save tainted ministers: Priyanka on Ajay Mishra’s remarks on farm leader

    NEW DELHI: On the first anniversary of Lakhimpur Kheri violence, the Congress on Monday attacked the Modi government over the continuation of Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’ as a minister as it cited the alleged involvement of his son in mowing down of farmers protesting against the three farm laws that have now been repealed.

    “Nothing can be more insulting that the farmers agitating against the black laws were deliberately killed while the culprit remains a member of the Union council of ministers,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh told reporters.

    There was clear evidence that the minister’s son was involved in the killing, he alleged.

    Mishra’s son Ashish Misra was arrested in the case after four farmers were crushed under the wheels of a convoy of cars and four others, including two BJP workers, were killed in apparently retaliatory violence.

    The Congress also reiterated its support to the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, which had spearheaded the farmers’ agitation against three farm laws, especially its demand for a legal guarantee to the minimum support price for farm produce.

    Bowing to the protests, the government had scrapped the laws.

    ALSO READ | How long will PM continue to save tainted ministers: Priyanka on Ajay Mishra’s remarks on farm leader

  • Farmers observe Jan 31 as ‘Vishwasghat Diwas’, accuse Centre of betraying them

    By PTI

    JAIPUR/GHAZIABAD: Farmers held protests in different parts of the country on Monday as part of their observance of ‘Vishwasghat Diwas’, accusing the Union government of betraying them over various farm issues.

    The call for a nationwide observance of ‘Betrayal Day’ was given by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday.

    He alleged that the over-year-long agitation of farmers at Delhi’s borders was suspended on basis of a letter given by the government on December 9, but those promises have not been fulfilled.

    In Rajasthan, farmers held protests at several district headquarters and major towns, including Jaipur.

    Farmers held a demonstration at Shaheed Smarak in the state capital and burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    In Sikar, former CPI(M) MLA and farmer leader Amra Ram led the protest and accused the Union government of not taking any step following the “agreement” with the farmers.

    In Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad, farmers gathered at the local collectorate and handed over a memorandum to the administration, BKU’s district president Bijendra Singh told PTI.

    ALSO READ: Rakesh Tikait slams Modi government says farmers would observe ‘Betrayal Day’ on Monday

    Addressing the protesters, he said the government has not yet fulfilled various demands of the farmers, including about minimum support price for crops even though their protest was suspended over a month ago.

    The cases lodged against agitating farmers have not been withdrawn and the Uttar Pradesh government was not paying attention to the demand of martyr status to farmers who died during the agitation, Singh added.

    The protest on Delhi’s borders had started under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a farmers’ collective, in November 2020 over the main demands of withdrawal of three contentious farm laws that were introduced by the BJP-led Centre.

    The farmers, who occupied key border points of Singhu, Tikri, and Ghazipur for over a year, also demanded a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) of crops.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in November 2021 announced that the contentious farm laws would be rolled back, leading to the protestors eventually vacating Delhi borders in December.

  • UP witnesses widespread protests over Lakhimpur Kheri incident

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Various political parties and farmers’ outfits on Monday held protests in various parts of Uttar Pradesh over the killings of four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri, demanding the dismissal of Union minister Ajay Kumar Mishra and lodging of an FIR against him and his son.

    The protests and demonstrations were reported from various districts, including Banda, Chitrakoot, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Jalaun and Lalitpur in the Bundelkhand region, besides Shahjahanpur, Pilibhit and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s home turf Gorakhpur.

    Besides the usual shouting of anti-government slogans, burning of government effigies, staging of sit-ins and blocking road traffics, the demonstrations were also marked by protesters clashing with police at some places, including Pilibhit, Chitrakoot, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Jalaun and Lalitpur.

    Workers of various political parties which participated in these protests included those of the Samajwadi Party, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party.

    Some of the political parties also protested against their leaders being stopped from proceeding to Lakhimpur Kheri.

    In a statement, the Samajwadi Party, in protests against the detention of its president Akhilesh Yadav to stop him from visiting the violence-hit district, its workers held demonstrations all over the state.

    SP chief Spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said the protests and dharnas were staged at all district headquarters and memorandums, addressed to President Ram Nath Kovind were given to officials there, demanding the dismissal of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra.

    The memorandum also demanded the registration of a criminal case against Mishra and his son and a compensation of Rs 1 crore to families of each of the killed farmers besides a government job to one of their kins, he added.

    According to reports, farmers’ outfits and political parties held demonstrations before the offices of district magistrates in Banda, Chitrakoot, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Jalaun and Lalitpur in the Bundelkhand region.

    In Banda, farmers led by the central president of Bundelkhand Kisan Union, Vimal Kumar Sharma, marched to the collectorate shouting slogans against the government and handed over a memorandum to officials there, demanding compensation to families of farmers, killed in Lakhimpur Kheri.

    In Banda, the Congress and SP workers too held demonstrations.

    In Chitrakoot, SP workers blocked the Prayagraj road and clashed with police.

    Similar protests by SP workers were also held in Mahoba, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Jalaun, Lalitpur.

    A report from Shahjahanpur said the traffic was blocked in the district with farmers camping at four different places.

    Shahjahanpur’s Superintendent of Police S Anand said a large number of policemen have been deployed at important crossings and Sikh-dominated Puvayan tehsil.

    The SP workers also blocked Kutchery road while BKU workers blocked the road but later the road was cleared on the intervention by District Magistrate Indra Vikram Singh and Superintendent of Police S Anand.

    Protests were also held in Pilibhit with farmers hitting streets in the entire district and clashing with police at some places.

    Yadvendra Singh Sodhi, a former general secretary of the district unit of the BJP Yuva Morcha and a member of its Regional Working Committee, reached Puranpur and announced his resignation from the party in the presence of farmers.

    Samajwadi Party workers also held a protest in Gorakhpur, the Chief Minister’s home district with the Congress workers too taking out a protest march in the city.

    Eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during farmers’ protest in Lakhimpur Kheri, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit by UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

    Four of the dead were people in the cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome the UP minister.

    The violence had erupted after one of the cars of the convoy of BJP supporters turned turtle at the farmers’ protest site, killing two of the protesting farmers on the spot.

  • Farmer leaders to meet Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to elicit support for protests against agri laws

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Farmer leaders led by Rakesh Tikait and Yudhvir Singh of the Bharatiya Kisan Union will be meeting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday to elicit her support for the ongoing farmers’ stir against the new agriculture laws and for a Minimum Support Price for farm produce.

    Banerjee’s support for the agitation which has drawn on the farmer community in rural north India, is being viewed as a potential booster which has been flagging in recent weeks.

    Yudhvir Singh, general secretary of the BKU, told PTI, “We want to congratulate Mamata Banerjee for her electoral victory and to elicit her support for the move to give farmers a fair MSP for their crops.”

    Singh wants to also impress Banerjee to come up with MSP for fruits, vegetables and milk products in West Bengal as “this will serve as a model” elsewhere.

    The lack of a specified MSP and glut in produce often leads to farmers suffering from extremely low prices which results in huge losses, often leading to farmer suicides in many parts of the country.

    Tikait and other farmer leaders have been agitating on Delhi’s borders for the past one year against three laws passed by the Parliament which they feel will commercialise agriculture without adequate protection to small farmers from exploitation by large retail chains and industry.

  • Government trying to use COVID as excuse to quell protest against agri laws, allege farmer leaders

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Farmer unions protesting the Centre’s three contentious farm laws at Delhi’s borders alleged on Monday the government was trying to “use coronavirus as an excuse to quell their agitation”.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a joint forum of farmer unions, also said the date for their proposed march to Parliament is yet to be decided.

    “The government is trying to use coronavirus as an excuse to quell farmers’ protest. They used the same trick last year. We will not let it happen,” farmer leader Yogendra Yadav alleged during a press conference at Delhi’s Singhu border.

    He said, “The government’s hypocrisy on coronavirus has been exposed. Ministers and leaders have been holding election rallies. They have no right to question others.”

    Yadav said immunisation camps were being set up at all farmer protest sites for those willing to take the vaccine jabs.

    Oxymeters and ambulances are being arranged, health facilities are being ramped up, he said.

    An an awareness campaign will be conducted to encourage farmers to weak mask and a pamphlet on measures to keep virus at bay will be distributed, Yadav said.

    Another leader said the farmers protest sites at Delhi’s border have not reported “coronavirus cases in large numbers” so far.

    “These are open, well ventilated spaces. These protest sites are not COVID-19 hotspots,” he said.

  • Farmer unions condemn Parliament panel’s demand for implementation of Essential Commodities Act

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Farmer unions on Sunday condemned the demand for immediate implementation of the Essential Commodities Amendment Act (ECAA) by a parliamentary committee.

    The ECAA is one of the three laws against which farmers have been protesting at Delhi’s borders.

    The parliamentary panel, which also has members from opposition parties, including the Congress, TMC and the AAP, asked the government to implement in “letter and spirit” the ECAA.

    These parties have been demanding repeal of all three farm laws enacted by the Centre recently.

    “It is insensitive to the food security of poor people and the demand to increase the procurement of farmers’ crops,” the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a joint front of the protesting farmer unions, said in a statement.

    “We appeal to farmers, labourers and common citizens to intensify their struggle for the repeal of the three laws and legal right of minimum support price,” the SKM said.

    The Morcha said it is clear from the overwhelming support from “Kisan Mahapanchayats” against the agricultural laws that the proposed “Bharat Bandh” on March 26 will be successful.

    It said all services, other than emergency services, will remain suspended from 6 am to 6 pm on that day.

  • Resolve farmers issue, if turmoil begins in Punjab whole country will suffer: Congress MP Ravneet Singh Bittu

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday urged the Centre to resolve the ongoing farmers’ protests over three agriculture laws and warned that if turmoil begins again in Punjab, the whole country will suffer.

    Raising the issue of farmers protests in Lok Sabha, the leader of the Congress party in the Lower House, Ravneet Singh Bittu, also requested Speaker Om Birla to invite leaders of all political parties for a meeting to find a solution to the demands of the tillers.

    Bittu said the farmers have contributed most to the growth of India and many of them have even protected the country at the borders.

    He said action must be taken as early as possible to find a solution to the ongoing farmers’ protests, else the situation may aggravate.

    Bittu said Punjab, from where most of the farmers have come for the protests at Delhi’s borders, is a border state and explosives were being transported across the border on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) every day.

    “Earlier, just one drone used to come from across the border. Now, every day 30 to 40 drones are coming with 30 to 40 kg of RDX and other explosives. You have to try to find a solution. Because if there is turmoil again in Punjab, the whole country will suffer,” he said.

    The farmers have been protesting at Delhi’s borders since November-end blocking major roads demanding repeal of three agriculture laws enacted last year.

  • Sanjay Singh writes to Rajya Sabha Chairman, urges discussion on ‘farmers’ issue’ in House

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Expressing his concern over ongoing farmers’ protest, Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Sanjay Singh on Monday urged the Parliament to postpone its session for the other businesses and hold a discussion on this “serious” issue in the House.

    In a letter to the Rajya Chairman, Singh said: “Under the provision of 267, other businesses of the House should be postponed and this serious issue of farmers should be discussed.”

    He also targeted the Centre government’s role over the farmers’ issue.

    “In spite of controlling the prices of petrol and diesel, the Central government is calling the agitating farmers ‘terrorist’. The government is behaving with the farmers like foreigners and outsiders,” the AAP MP stated.

    Farmers have been protesting at different borders of the national capital since November 26 last year against the three newly enacted farm laws — Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.  

  • Farmer protests: BKU leader Rakesh Tikait to hold Kisan Mahapanchayat in UP’s Saharanpur

    By ANI
    SAHARANPUR: Amid the ongoing framers’ protest at Delhi borders against the three Central agricultural laws, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait will hold a Kisan Mahapanchayat at Lakhnaur in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

    According to sources, all preparations for the Kisan Mahapanchayat have been completed. Reportedly, in order to mobilise the historical crowd in Panchayat, BKU leaders were visiting villages and talking to farmers for the last several days.

    A company of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and personnel from at least four police stations have been deployed to maintain law and order in the state, said sources.

    Police will also monitor the speeches of Kisan Mahapanchayat, they added.

    Tikait would be attending farmers’ meetings planned across Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to garner support for the ongoing stir against the new farm laws.

    Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital since November 26 against the three newly enacted farm laws – Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. 

  • Right to protest and express dissent comes with certain duties: Supreme Court

    By Online Desk
    The Supreme Court has dismissed a review petition challenging the Shaheen Bagh protest judgement passed last year which said protests should be at a designated place.

    The order passed on February 9th said that the right to protest cannot be anytime and everywhere.

    The plea was filed by one Shaheen Bagh resident Kaniz Fatima and others seeking review of last year’s verdict of October 7.

    The top court, which considered the matter in the judges’ chambers also rejected the prayer for open court hearing in the matter.

    Dismissing the petition, the Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari felt that the earlier judgement “does not suffer from any error apparent warranting its reconsideration.”

    The Constitutional scheme comes with a right to protest and express dissent but with an obligation to have certain duties, the order said.

    “There may be some spontaneous protests but in case of prolonged dissent or protest, there cannot be continued occupation of public place affecting rights of others,” it read.

    Shaheen Bagh order

    In October 2020, A bench headed by Justice S K Kaul passed the verdict on batch of petitions against the anti-CAA protests in the national capital’s Shaheen Bagh.

    It said protests should be at a designated place and any occupation of public places or roads by demonstrators, which cause inconvenience to a large number of people and violate their rights, is not permissible under law.

    The apex court also said that the authorities concerned should not hide behind courts and act on their own in such situations.

    The bench also said that the balance has to be struck between the right to protest and other public rights like the right to movement.

    “Dissent and democracy must go hand in hand but protests should be confined to designated areas,” said Justice SK Kaul.

    Restrictions were imposed on the Kaindi Kunj-Shaheen Bagh stretch and the Okhla underpass, which were closed on December 15, 2019 due to the protests.

    The Shaheen Bagh protests began against the Centre’s Citizenship Amendment law (CAA) which aimed to provide Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

    Later, due to COVID-19 pandemic, the area was cleared.

    (With ENS, PTI inputs)