News Analysis India

Tag: Farmers agitation

  • PM Narendra Modi orders repeal of three farm laws ahead of Assembly polls in five states

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: In the face of daunting electoral tests in five states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced the decision to take the Parliamentary nod to repeal three contentious farm laws in the upcoming Winter session of Parliament.

    PM Modi exhorted the agitating farmers to call off their protests and return to their homes, while apologizing for not being able to convince some of the farmers about the good intentions of the government.

    Addressing the nation. https://t.co/daWYidw609
    — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 19, 2021
    Timing the announcement with Gurupurab, the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, Prime Minister’s announcement was seen in the offing to allow the former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh to kick off his campaign in the state for the upcoming Assembly elections in alliance with the BJP.

    Sticking to the pro-small farmers narrative of the government, Modi sought to project the flexibility for not being able to take “some of the farmers onboard” by arguing that the three contentious farm laws had received overwhelming welcome by a large number of stakeholders.

    Yet, he said that the government has taken the decision to get the nod of the Parliament to repeal the three laws, which, incidentally, had led to the NDA’s oldest ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) snapping alliance with the BJP.

    ALSO READ| Farmers’ protest: Court seeks status report from police on plea seeking FIR against Haryana CM

    By projecting a package, repeal of the three laws and constitution of a committee to scientifically look into the issue of the minimum support prices (MSPs), Modi has seemingly given the BJP an elbow room to work on the Jat Sikh-Hindu constituency alliance with Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab, besides buyingpeace with the angry Jats in western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

    With the prospects of the Jat vote base shifting allegiance with the BJP in the western UP, the saffron outfit is being seen within the party struggling on at least 70 Assembly seats in the Hindi heartland which has a total of 403 seats.  At the same time, the BJP-JJP government in Haryana was also facing the heat of the agitating farmers.

    ALSO READ| Repealing of farm laws: Sidhu, Amarinder welcome move; protesting unions to decide next course of action

    However, Prime Minister’s retreat after a strong posturing on farm reform is not a first as the NDA government had also previously withdrawn the contentious land amendment bill ordinance before the crucial Assembly elections.

    Farmers celebrate in New Delhi after PM #NarendraModi announced that the Centre has decided to repeal all three #FarmLaws.Express video | @parveennegi1. pic.twitter.com/aoeoXEI22R
    — The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) November 19, 2021
    The announcement came on a day when Prime Minister is set for launch of several projects in Uttar Pradesh.

  • Farmers agitation getting violent day by day: Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij

    By IANS

    CHANDIGARH: Amidst the anger for postponing the procurement of paddy in Punjab and Haryana by the Central government, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Saturday said the agitation of farmers is getting violent day by day.

    “The violent movement in the country of Mahatma Gandhi won’t be allowed. The leaders of farmers should keep patience during the agitation,” Vij said in a tweet.

    किसान आंदोलन दिंन प्रतिदिन हिंसक होता जा रहा है । महात्मा गांधी के देश मे हिंसक आंदोलन की इजाजत नहीं दी जा सकती । किसान नेता अपने आंदोलन को संयम में रखें ।
    — ANIL VIJ MINISTER HARYANA (@anilvijminister) October 2, 2021
    The Centre on Friday said, delaying the paddy procurement, which was supposed to have started on October 1 from Punjab and Haryana to October 11, is in the “overall interest of farmers and consumers as well because of the untimely rains, maturity of paddy grains is delayed”.

    As per Indian Meteorological Department data, rainfall during September 2021 is 77 per cent and 139 per cent above normal in Punjab and Haryana, respectively, a release from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said.

    Punjab and Haryana witnessed widespread protest and anger over the delay in the procurement. A day earlier even Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and requested him to take back the decision to postpone the paddy procurement by 10 days.

    As a protest, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal accompanied a trolley filled with paddy to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) head office here to get the moisture content of the food grain checked.

    Talking to the media, Badal said the postponement in paddy procurement would spell doom for the state’s economy. “Farmers had planned in advance and had started harvesting their crop since the last few days. Paddy had also reached ‘mandis’ in the state. Postponing procurement will not only result in harassment of farmers but will also jeopardize the paddy crop in case of inclement weather,” he said.

  • Suspend stir, it’s spreading COVID to villages: Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar to farmers

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday urged farmers to suspend their stir against farm laws amid the grim Covid-19 situation, claiming that their movements to and from dharna sites were spreading the infection in villages.

    Khattar said farmers may resume their agitation later if they wish, but they must stop it as of now.

    “If they wish to restart these dharnas once the situation is under control, they are free to do so,” Khattar told a news conference digitally.

    He said he had appealed to farmers’ leaders even a month earlier to suspend their dharnas so that the disease does not spread.

    Referring to farmers’ movement to and from dharna sites, Khattar said, “What is coming to the fore now is that because of these dharnas, this (infection) has spread.

    “In many villages, hotspots have emerged because their people are regularly coming and going back from dharna sites,” the chief minister added.

    Farmers have not only been sitting in protest near the Singhu and Tikri borders but in many other parts of Haryana too.

    “Their leaders should understand the situation even now. They keep ranting that they will take the vaccine but will not get themselves tested. If they do not get tested, one doesn’t know who might have been impacted by COVID,” said Khattar.

    “They should come forward to be tested so that those found positive can be treated and other necessary measures can be taken accordingly,” he added.

    Referring to protesting farmers’ reluctance to be tested for the infection, the chief minister said “everyone should have faith in the health and medical system. If we start doubting it, it displays our narrow-mindedness. So, I appeal to farmers sitting on dharnas to get their tests done”.

    Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, Khattar had earlier nearly a month ago too had urged farmers to withdraw their stir on “humanitarian grounds”.

    He had then said while it is the constitutional right of every person to protest and the state does not have a problem with anyone doing so in a peaceful manner, the situation due to rising COVID cases is a matter of concern.

    Days after the CM’s appeal last month, Haryana BKU leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni had then said protesting farmers should not be compelled to get themselves tested or vaccinated and if health workers tried to force them, they will not allow them to enter protest sites.

    Khattar, meanwhile, was also asked to comment on the allegations that a woman from West Bengal, who died after showing COVID-like symptoms, at a hospital in Bahadurgarh, had been raped by two men she had accompanied to a farmers’ protest site at the Tikri border.

    “Police are conducting investigations. Whosoever is found guilty in investigations, strict action will be taken against them as per law,” said Khattar.

    Haryana Police had on Sunday formed a special investigation team to probe the allegations after the 25-year-old woman’s father lodged a police complaint.

    Six people, including two prime accused, have been named in an FIR lodged on a complaint by the father of the deceased woman on Saturday.

  • Farmers participate with vigour in ‘rail roko’; railways says impact negligible

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Agitating farmer groups on Thursday held a four-hour nationwide ‘rail roko’ agitation with the railways saying there was negligible impact on services though some trains were stopped by officials at stations as a precautionary measure.

    In Punjab and Haryana, farmers at several places squatted on railway tracks which led to disruption in normal movement of trains on some routes.

    Protests were also staged at some places in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka in response to the call by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions which is spearheading the agitation against the three farm laws.

    However, in many states, it was a low-key affair.

    The SKM called the blockade “peaceful and successful”.

    In a statement, it claimed trains were stopped between 12 pm and 4 pm at “hundreds of locations” across the country.

    “Anger among farmers is intensifying and the central government will have to repeal the laws,” it said.

    The All India Kisan Sabha also claimed the agitation received “massive response across the country”, adding some activists were arrested in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Telangana.

    “The massive success of the rail roko struggle is a warning to the Modi government.

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    The farmers across the country have expressed their determination to continue the struggle till the demands are met with,” the Sabha said in a statement.

    A railway spokesperson said the agitation passed off without any untoward incident and there was negligible or minimal impact on running of the trains across the country.

    Trains began running normally across the country within an hour after the blockade ended, he said.

    Earlier, around 25 trains were regulated by the Railways due to the agitation.

    “Majority of the zones have reported not a single case of any stoppage of train by the agitators.

    Few trains were stopped in some areas of some Railway zones but now train operation is normal and trains are being operated smoothly.

    While dealing with the Rail roko agitation, utmost patience was exercised by all concerned,” he said.

    The railways deployed 20 additional companies of the RPSF across the country, especially in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

    Farmer groups congregated in Haryana’s Ambala, Kurukshetra and Charkhi Dadri railway stations, according to officials.

    In Kurukshetra, some protesters climbed atop the Gita Jayanti Express train, which was stationary at that time, resulting in some delay.

    In Punjab, protesters sat on tracks at many places on the Delhi-Ludhiana-Amritsar railway route, officials said.

    Farmers also blocked the Jalandhar Cantt-Jammu railway track in Jalandhar and besides a rail track in Mohali district, they said.

    The Ferozepur division of the Northern Railways decided to halt trains at stations so that passengers face less inconvenience during the ‘rail roko’ protest.

    In Rajasthan, officials said that the Rewari-Sri Ganganagar special train was the only train cancelled due to the agitation, while few others were delayed.

    In West Bengal too, stray incidents were reported across the state with little or no effect on rail services.

    ALSO READ | Rail roko: Asked to end agitation, farmers feed sweets, shower UP Police with flowers in Ghaziabad

    In Maharashtra, members of several organisations and workers of political parties, including Congress, Shiv Sena, NCP, Janata Dal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), also took part in the rail roko agitation at the Pune railway station, labour welfare activist Nitin Pawar said.

    The protesters blocked the Koyna Express and shouted slogans by standing in front of trains, he said.

    At least 12 people were detained at Lasur station, around 40 km from Aurangabad, an official said.

    “The Jalna-Mumbai Janshatabdi train was stopped at the station for around 30 minutes.

    We have detained around 12 agitators and further probe is underway,” the official from the railway police said.

    In Bengaluru, the protest was low-key but there was a good turnout of protesters in Raichur, Belagavi and Davangere.

    In Raichur, Belagavi and Davangere, some protesters were arrested, sources said.

    Thousands of farmers have been protesting since late November at Delhi’s borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the 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.

    The protesting farmers have expressed their apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporations.

    However, the government has maintained that the new laws will bring better opportunities to farmers and introduce new technologies in agriculture.

  • 2021 Budget does not matter, only concerned about having farm laws repealed: Protesting farmers

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Farmers protesting at various sites on the border of Delhi on Monday unequivocally said they are only concerned about their common goal of having the three farm laws repealed, and what has been offered to the agriculture sector in the Union budget did not matter.

    At Singhu Border, most farmers were rather clueless about the Budget, saying they were “unable to access the internet” at the protest site, so couldn’t get to know the details. “Our demand was to increase the price of crops, not agriculture credit. This is a conspiracy to take away your land. Within 10-15 years, the corporate will take your land. The fight is for rate of crops, not for credit. They didn’t talk about MSP. There is nothing for farmers,” farmer leader Rakesh Tikait told PTI.

    “The administration has put barbed wires on three roads. They are stopping movement of vehicles towards Delhi, not us. We have been waiting to talk to the prime minister for the past seven years. PM Modi, give us your mobile number. We are ready to talk,” he added.

    ALSO READ| Farmers’ stir: Ghazipur turns fortress, nails cemented on roads leading to protest site

    Randhir Singh (48), from Kaithal district of Haryana, who has been camping there since December, said, “Our only goal right now is to see the three laws repealed. Union budget is not of immediate concern to us.”

    Pala Ram, also from the same village as Singh, echoed similar views. “Some people told me about the points made for the agriculture sector, but that is something, we are not worried about at the moment,” he said.

    Avtar Singh (65), from Punjab’s Patiala, said that the government should have offered ways to increase farmers’ income and not just credit target.

    ALSO READ| Farmers will not benefit from Union Budget 2021: Congress

    Ranjeet Raju, state president, Gramin Kisan Majdoor Samiti, Sri Ganga Nagar said, “If the government wants to help, they should take steps to increase farmers’ income, not by increasing agriculture credit target. This is like pushing farmers into the debt trap, which eventually leads to more farmer suicides. And micro-irrigation corpus, which I am told is doubled in this Budget, is something that goes to industries in the name of farmers.”

    “Farmers didn’t expect much from the present Budget. But were curious to know the funds marked for the agriculture sector.  were bereft of those details too this time,” said Jehangir (31), a farmer hailing from Bihar.