News Analysis India

Tag: Farmers Protest

  • Rahul Gandhi drives tractor to Parliament, says ‘brought farmers’ message’

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday drove a tractor to reach Parliament in protest against the three farm laws.

    Extending support to farmers who have been agitating against the new agricultural laws, the Wayanad MP told media persons, “I have brought farmers’ message to Parliament. They (The government) are suppressing the voices of farmers and not letting a discussion take place in Parliament. They will have to repeal these black laws. The entire country knows these laws favour 2-3 big businessmen.”

    “As per the government, farmers are very happy and those (protesting farmers) sitting outside are terrorists. But in reality, farmers’ rights are being snatched away,” he added.

    Gandhi was accompanied by Congress MPs, who raised slogans against the farm laws and the Centre.

    Congress leader #RahulGandhi arrived at the Parliament driving a tractor, protesting against the three #FarmLaws in New Delhi.@RahulGandhi @INCIndia pic.twitter.com/0kqV0dYZNP
    — The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) July 26, 2021

    Farmers have been protesting on the 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 leaders and the Centre have held several rounds of talks but the impasse remains.

    On Sunday, while calling the farmers of Jind (Haryana) revolutionaries, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait had hailed the decision of carrying out a tractor parade in protest against the Centre’s farm laws on Independence Day.Addressing media near a protest site in Delhi, Tikait had said carrying out a tractor rally is not a ‘bad thing’, and driving tractors with a national flag increases the spirit of nationalism in people. On Thursday, several Congress leaders, including former party president Rahul Gandhi, staged a protest against the Centre’s farm laws in front of the Gandhi statue in the Parliament premises.Congress also held protest marches in different states seeking a Supreme Court-monitored probe into allegations of surveillance using Pegasus spyware.

    The Opposition has alleged that names of several Indian politicians, journalists, lawyers, and activists have appeared on the leaked list of potential targets for surveillance by an unidentified agency using Pegasus spyware. This comes following reports published in The Wire. (ANI)

  • Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu calls victory of anti-farm law agitation ‘top priority’

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Newly appointed Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday said for him the “victory” of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha is a top priority and he will go “barefoot” to meet farmers protesting the Centre’s farm laws whenever they call him.

    The Samyukt Kisan Morcha is an umbrella body of farmer unions spearheading the agitation against the Centre’s three farm laws.

    Farmers have been protesting at Delhi borders since late November, demanding the repeal of the laws.

    “I consider the victory of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha as my top priority. I have been calling the farmers’ agitation as sacred for the past one year,” Sidhu told reporters at Chamkaur Sahib, where he got a rousing reception from party workers, a day after taking charge as the state Congress chief.

    Chamkaur Sahib is the constituency of Punjab minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

    Party supporters showered flower petals on Sidhu as his cavalcade passed through various places. The cricketer-turned-politician also visited various religious places. Later, he told reporters at Morinda that he wants to ask the protesting farmers how the Punjab government can assist them in their cause.

    “I want to ask them how our government’s power can help them in a big way. Look, rising cost, declining yield and income for the past 25 years are forcing farmers to hold agitation. It is our intention that this social movement should convert into an economic power,” said Sidhu.

    He recalled that he had put up a black flag at his house in support of agitating farmers.

    “Whenever they call me, I will go barefoot and take their blessings,” he stated.

    Sidhu also raised the issues concerning the desecration cases, power tariffs and the drug menace.

    “Every Punjabi wants justice in ‘beadbi (desecration) of the Guru Sahib’,” Sidhu said.

    He said people want to know the names of the big fish behind the drug menace.

    “Why we have a power purchase contract at Rs 18 a unit when it is available at Rs 2 per unit.

    When we know every year, solar power rates are declining by 20 per cent, then why Punjab pays from Rs 7 to 18 per unit. Why should it not be bought from the national grid? We have to give answers to all these questions,” Sidhu said raising the issue of power high tarrif.

    Sidhu further said his party has an an 18-point agenda.

    “Every MLA, MP and worker is a guard of this agenda and it has to be implemented,” asserted Sidhu.

    “We have no option other than this to move forward,” said Sidhu while pointing towards the 18-point agenda.

    The party high command last month had asked Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to act on 18 issues, including the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, drugs and power purchase agreements.

  • Fire at farmers’ protest site on Singhu border, tent damaged 

    By PTI
    SONIPAT: A tent was damaged as a fire broke out at the farmers’ protest site on the Delhi’s Singhu border on Saturday, police said.

    A police official said no loss of human life was reported in this incident.

    Farmers have been camping at Delhi borders since November last year, demanding the repeal of the Centre’s three contentious farm laws and a new law to guarantee minimum support price for crops.

    However, the government has maintained that the laws are pro-farmer.

    Several rounds of talks between farmers and the government have failed to break the deadlock over the farm laws.

  • Union minister Meenakshi Lekhi slams protesting farmers as ‘mawali’, later retracts

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Union minister and BJP leader Meenakshi Lekhi on Thursday denounced farmers protesting here against the three contentious farm laws as “mawali” (ruffian) after she was asked about incidents of alleged violence during their protests.

    As her comments created a furore, Lekhi later tweeted that her comments were “twisted” and that she withdraws her words if they have hurt anyone.

    At her press conference in the BJP headquarters, a reporter referred to “farmers” attacking a camera person when he was covering their protests at Jantar Mantar, she said, “You should stop calling them farmers because they are not farmers.”

    She continued, “They are playing in the hands of some conspirators. Farmers don’t have time to sit in Jantar Mantar. They are working in their farms. Middlemen are behind them (protestors) who do not want farmers to get benefits.”

    She also cited the violent incidents in the national capital during farmers’ protest on January 26, and said these protestors should not be called farmers.

    Replying to another question about the attack on the camera person, who works with a leading Hindi news channel, and also the January 26 incidents, she said, “You are calling them farmers again. They are mawali.”

    She said such attacks are criminal incidents whose cognisance should be taken.

    The cameraperson was injured after he was allegedly attacked by a freelance journalist on Thursday at Jantar Mantar where the farmers are protesting against the new agri laws, police said.

    The cameraperson has been identified as Nagendra Gosain, police said.

    A senior police officer said Gosain was attacked by Prabhjot Singh, a freelance journalist.

    Gosain said Singh was abusing mediapersons in the morning and was also recording it.

    Singh also used foul language against a woman journalist, he said.

  • ‘Very concerned’ about well-being of protesting women farmers: Smriti Irani.

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The government is “very concerned” about the well-being of women farmers protesting at Delhi borders, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

    Replying to a question, Irani said the agriculture ministry has appealed to the protesting farmers’ unions that women should be requested to go home keeping in view the severe weather conditions and Covid pandemic.

    “The government has been very concerned about the well-being of women farmers. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare during discussions with the farmers’ unions appealed to them that children and elders, especially women, should be requested to go home keeping in view the severe weather conditions and the Covid pandemic,” Irani said in a written reply.

    “Basic amenities for taking care of the condition of citizens, including that of women farmers, are provided by the concerned local body and state/UT government,” she added.

    Thousands of farmers from across the country have been agitating at three Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — against the three farm laws that they claim will do away with the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.

    Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws at major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the deadlock between the two sides.

  • 200 farmers reach Jantar Mantar for protest against farm laws amid heavy security arrangements

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A group of 200 farmers reached Jantar Mantar in central Delhi on Thursday to protest against the Centre’s three contentious farm laws as the Monsoon session of Parliament was underway.

    Police threw a ring of security around central Delhi and kept a tight vigil on the movement of vehicles.

    Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal has given special permission for demonstration by a maximum of 200 farmers at Jantar Mantar, a few metres from the Parliament Complex, till August 9.

    The 200 farmers, wearing identification badges and carrying flags of their unions, travelled to Jantar Mantar from their Singhu border protest site in buses with a police escort.

    Buses, carrying farmers, arrive at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. The protesting farmers will agitate against Central Government’s three farm laws here. pic.twitter.com/ru3WfYa63p
    — ANI (@ANI) July 22, 2021

    The protest was to start at 11 am, but the farmers reached the venue only by 12:25 pm.

    Farmer leader Shiv Kumar Kakka said police stopped them at three places en route and their Aadhaar cards were checked.

    Upon reaching Jantar Mantar, farmers raised slogans, demanding the government scrap the three laws.

    The protesting farmers have been restricted to a small section of Jantar Mantar with police putting up barricades on both sides.

    Several teams of the Delhi Police manned the roads leading to the protest venue, while personnel of the Rapid Action Force, an specialized unit of the Central Reserve Police Force, stood guard at the site, carrying riot shields and batons.

    Delhi: Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait reaches Jantar Mantar as farmers begin their protest against Central Government’s three farm laws. pic.twitter.com/8LdOFkIlnp
    — ANI (@ANI) July 22, 2021

    A water cannon and metal-detector gates have been deployed at the site.

    Two tankers carrying drinking water have also been stationed there.

    The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions spearheading the protest against the three farm laws, has been asked to give an undertaking that all COVID-19 norms would be followed and the stir would be peaceful.

    Although the SKM had said that their protest at Jantar Mantar would continue till the end of the Monsoon session of Parliament on August 13, the lieutenant governor has given permission for protest till August 9.

    This is the first time since the violence in the national capital during a tractor rally on January 26 that the authorities have granted permission to the protesting farmer unions to hold a demonstration in the city.

    Gathering for protests is currently not allowed in the national capital in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an order by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority.

    Thousands of farmers from across the country have been agitating at three Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — against the three farm laws that they claim will do away with the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.

    Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws at major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the deadlock between the two sides.

    PTI GVS AMP SMN SMN 07221256 NNNN

  • Farmers block highway in Sirsa; demand release of protesters, withdrawal of sedition charges 

    By PTI
    SIRSA: Farmers on Wednesday blocked a national highway here at three different points to demand the release of five protesters who were arrested last week following an attack on Haryana Assembly Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa’s car.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of various farmers’ unions, spearheading stir against the farm laws, has also demanded the withdrawal of cases including sedition charges against over 100 protesters booked in connection with the incident involving the attack on Gangwa’s car on July 11.

    Meanwhile, the indefinite fast of farmer leader Baldev Singh Sirsa as a protest against the arrests and registration of cases entered the fourth day on Wednesday.

    A team of the health department conducted Sirsa’s medical checkup at the protest site.

    ALSO READ | Farmers get Delhi Police’s permission to hold protests at Jantar Mantar

    The protesters blocked the highway for two hours at different points, including Khuian Malana toll plaza and Panjuana village.

    While emergency vehicles were allowed to pass, the blockade, however, resulted in traffic jams on both sides of the road.

    Police in strength had been deployed to prevent any untoward incident.

    Many passengers, including some students, were seen getting down from the buses and walking on foot and using other means to reach their destinations.

    The police have booked over 100 people, mostly unidentified, for sedition, obstructing public servants in discharge of their duty, murderous attempt on an elected representative and damaging public property after the attack on the deputy speaker’s vehicle.

    The protesting farmers had earlier claimed that the administration has not been able to show any video or other evidence to prove that the farmers indulged in violence on July 11.

  • BJP leaders from Punjab meet JP Nadda after party workers gheraoed by farmers

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Days after party leaders and workers were gheraoed by protesting farmers in Punjab’s Rajpura, BJP leaders from the state, including its state unit chief Ashwani Sharma, met party president JP Nadda here on Saturday.

    Around two dozen BJP leaders from Punjab met Nadda at the party headquarters here.

    BJP general secretaries Tarun Chugh and Dushyant Gautam, who is also the party in-charge for Punjab, were present at the meeting.

    The Punjab BJP leaders shared their concerns with Nadda and also complained about the “partisan” approach of the state police, Harjeet Singh Grewal, who was present at the meeting, said.

    Last Sunday, about a dozen BJP leaders and workers were gheraoed and not allowed to come out of a house for nearly 12 hours by protesting farmers at Rajpura in Punjab’s Patiala district.

    They were allowed to come out of the house in the early hours of Monday only after the Punjab and Haryana High Court intervened.

    When contacted, Gautam said the party leaders from Punjab shared their concerns and described the situation they are facing in the aftermath of “politically-motivated” protests by a section of farmers in the Congress-ruled state.

    “Naddaji has assured them that the party firmly stands with its workers in Punjab,” he said.

    Farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been protesting against three farm laws of the Centre at the borders of Delhi for months.

    The farmers have tried to attack several BJP leaders from Punjab, including Union minister Som Parkash.

  • Mayawati slams Amarinder Singh over letter to PM regarding farmers’ protest

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: BSP president Mayawati on Saturday targeted Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh over his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the ongoing farmers’ agitation.

    “The letter written by the Congress CM of Punjab to the PM, expressing various apprehensions about the farmers’ agitation is a conspiracy to defame the movement of the farmers, who are sacrificing their lives to get the new agricultural laws repealed, and pursue electoral politics under its guise.

    This is most unfair,” she said in a tweet in Hindi.

    Taking the Centre’s cooperation on challenges faced by the government of a border state is not unreasonable, but pursuing selfish electoral politics under its garb and defaming the farmers’ movement are something the public understands well, Mayawati added.

    “The Congress is not going to reap any benefit by doing this,” she said.

    Singh had on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately resume talks with agitating farmers, sending him a letter that cited “cross-border threat” by ISI-backed groups ahead of the state assembly polls.

    In the letter, the chief minister cited “heightened cross-border threat and increased drone and other terrorist activities by ISI-backed groups, including plans by Khalistani outfits to target certain farmer leaders”.

    He warned that powers across the border “may try to play upon the charged emotions of our proud, sincere, and hardworking farmers” of Punjab.

  • Come winter, summer and now rain: Protesting farmers ready for monsoons at Delhi borders

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: With metal reinforced roofs for ‘tents’, battery powered lights and cleaning drives to ensure there is no stagnation of water around their temporary homes, the doughty band of farmers camping at Delhi’s borders are busy getting ready for the monsoons.

    Rains spell relief from the sweltering heat but also lead to huge problems, farmer leaders said on Tuesday as the first monsoon showers fell over the national capital and its surrounding areas.

    From keeping ration stocks dry and tackling waterlogging to ward off diseases to preventing electricity related mishaps and ensuring power supply in case of any outage, the challenges are aplenty at the Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur sites where thousands of farmers have been camping for seven months to protest the centre’s new farm laws.

    “It is true the rains will bring us some relief from the heat, but the monsoon has its own set of problems. Tents get uprooted. The rains result in stagnant water, which in turn lead to the breeding of disease-causing mosquitoes,” said farmer leader Avtar Mehma.

    One of the first measures to brave the rains was to strengthen the structures that have been their homes.

    “We have renovated our tents. The tarpaulin covers have been replaced by more permanent roofs. Plus, a large number of units have been turned into fixed structures with pillars being dug into the ground,” said Lakhbir Singh, another farmer leader.

    Mehma added that their “simple tents” have been transformed into ‘pucca structures’ with iron roofs.

    These structures will protect the protestors as well as their ration stocks from the rains.

    “We are trying to ensure that ration is stored in these rooms and kept on elevated surfaces so it stays protected in case there is waterlogging,” Mehma said.

    ALSO READ | Haryana deputy speaker car attack case: Sirsa police books over 100 protesters

    The recent death of a 46-year-old farmer who was electrocuted at the Tikri border has raised anxiety levels.

    “We have been managing electricity by joining wires from here and there. Open wires can often cause accidents so we are trying to get that fixed because chances of accidents will increase in the rains,” Mehma said.

    Monsoon rains also bring with them frequent power cuts, even in the best parts of the city, and these temporary townships on highways are no exceptions.

    “There is nothing we can do about the frequent power cuts. But we are trying to arrange for emergency lights that use batteries as well as solar lights.”

    “We have also installed inverters and generators in few locations at these protest sites in case of an emergency,” Lakhbir Singh said.

    Mehma added that while waterlogging in some areas is unavoidable in this season, volunteers have been deployed to try and stop water from stagnating and to fumigate the protest sites to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes and other insects.

    “The governments have not helped us. We have been ensuring cleanliness and sanitation by ourselves right from the beginning,” Mehma said.

    They braved the bone-chilling winter, the hot summer and the monsoons are further par for the course, the farmers said.

    The Ghazipur border, for instance, where around 4,000 to 5,000 protestors have been camping under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) led by Rakesh Tikait, is buzzing with activity.

    “We have also informed the farmers who are planning to join the protest here in coming days from their villages to come prepared with facilities for sleeping and cooking on their tractor-trollies during the rains,” said BKU co-media in-charge Saurabh Upadhyay.

    The protestors, occupying a road stretch on a flyway on the Delhi-Meerut expressway and under it at the UP Gate, are procuring potable water from Ghaziabad through tankers everyday.

    The local administration has also largely been helpful, he added.

    As they settle in deeper into their ‘protest routine’, the farmers say they will not succumb to any pressure, natural or man-made.

    They are now gearing up for a fresh round of demonstrations outside Parliament through the monsoon session, following which they will be rallying in huge numbers in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

    “The BJP has a stronghold in these two states, which makes the party believe it is powerful in the whole country. Unfortunately, the opposition is not doing its job, so the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (United Farmers Front) has emerged as the opposition.”

    “We are planning to take out rallies in these two states in September to ensure that the BJP does not win the elections there,” Mehma said.

    The farmers have been protesting at Delhi borders against the three farm laws, which they fear will do away with the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.

    Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws as major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the deadlock between the two parties, resulting in the agitation continuing.