News Analysis India

Tag: Samyukta Kisan Morcha

  • Samyukta Kisan Morcha appeals to farmers to peacefully participate in ‘Bharat Bandh’ on Friday

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), spearheading anti-farm laws protests at Delhi borders, appealed to farmers on Thursday to peacefully participate in a ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by transport and trade unions on February 26.

    Traders’ body CAIT has said that all commercial markets across the country will remain closed on February 26 in view of its ‘Bharat Bandh’ call demanding a review of the provisions of the goods and services tax (GST) regime.

    The Morcha, in a statement, said it supports the ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by transport and trade unions on Friday.

    “We appeal to all farmers in the country to support all the ‘Bharat Bandh’ protesters peacefully and make the Bandh a success,” it said.

    The outfit also condemned the management body of DAV School in Gopalapuram, Chennai, for allegedly publishing “prejudiced and presumptive” questions on farmers’ tractor rally on Republic Day, in an exam conducted by it.

    The farmers protesting at Delhi borders for three months demanding repeal of the Centre’s three farm laws and MSP for their crops will celebrate “Yuva Kisan Diwas” on Friday.

    On this day, all the stages of SKM will be operated by the youth.

  • Protesting farmers observe ‘Pagdi Sambhal Divas’; Tikait says will gherao Parliament

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Donning traditional turbans and singing songs of the peasant movement, farmers protesting at Delhi borders against the three agri laws on Tuesday marked the “Pagdi Sambhal Divas”.

    Called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the day-long event was inspired by the “Pagdi Sambhal Lehar” of 1906.

    “At that time also, the government had passed three anti-farmer laws against which the peasant movement started and it was successful. The unity of the farmers proves that this movement will also be successful,” an SKM statement said.

    Once turban used to be pride of the farmer, but the government has forced farmers to use turban for hanging, farmer leaders said, adding that the day was observed to “express their self-respect”.

    At the Singhu border, cultural programmes were held, which were attended by the family members of the revolutionary Bhagat Singh, including his nephew Abhay Sandhu.

    While addressing the farmers, Sandhu said he would observe a fast unto death if the government did not accept the demands of the farmers by March 23 (Bhagat Singh’s death anniversary).

    Farmers also celebrated the birth anniversary of nationalist and peasant leader Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, by recalling his role in nation building and mass movements.

    ALSO READ | UP farmers to observe fast, send messages to PM till demands are met: RKMS chief

    At Tikri border, several farmers, largely from Karnataka and Telangana, arrived to join the movement.

    “The government repeatedly rejects this movement by calling it a movement of a particular area, rather this movement belongs to the farmers across the country,” the SKM statement said.

    “Pagdi Sambhal Divas” was also observed in Nandurbar in Maharashtra, and Bhiwani in Haryana.

    Thousands of farmers from different parts of the country, including Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting at multiple Delhi borders against the three farm laws, which they are afraid, will do away with the Minimum Support Price system, leaving them at the mercy of the big private corporations.

    While the government has been projecting the laws as agricultural reforms, farmers have been demanding the repeal of the three legislations.

    Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said on Tuesday that if the Centre does not repeal the three new agriculture laws, the protesting farmers will gherao Parliament.

    He appealed to farmers to be ready as the call for ‘Delhi march’ can be given at any time.

    Tikait was addressing the Kisan Mahapanchayat of United Kisan Morcha in Sikar, Rajasthan Tuesday.

    ALSO READ | Farmers of Punjab, Haryana will be devastated by closure of ‘mandis’: Yogendra Yadav

    “This time the call will be for Parliament gherao. We will announce it and then march towards Delhi. This time 40 lakh tractors will be there instead of four lakh tractors,” he said.

    Tikait said the protesting farmers would plough the parks near India Gate and grow crops there.

    Leaders of the United Front will decide the date to gherao the Parliament, he added.

    He also said there was a conspiracy to malign the country’s farmers on January 26, when violence had broken out in the national capital during their tractor parade.

    “The farmers of the country love the tricolor, but not the leaders of this country,” he said.

    Tikait said farmers are openly challenging the government that if it does not repeal all three contentious agricultural laws and does not implement the MSP, then the farmers of the country will also demolish the godowns of big companies.

    ALSO READ | Haryana farmers destroy crop in protest against agri laws

    The United Front will also give a date for this soon, he said.

    The mahapanchayat was also addressed by Swaraj movement leader Yogendra Yadav, National Vice President of All India Kisan Sabha Amra Ram, National General Secretary of Kisan Union, Chaudhary Yudhvir Singh and others.

    Earlier on Tuesday, Tikait also addressed a farmers’ gathering at Sardarshahar in Churu district.

  • SKM firm on holding Tikait’s ‘Maha Panchayat’ in Yavatmal

    By PTI
    NAGPUR: Even as the district administration in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal has denied permission to the February 20 ‘Maha Panchayat’ of farmer leader Rakesh Tikait due to rising COVID-19 cases, its organiser- Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM)- on Friday said it is firm on holding the public meeting there.

    The SKM said that if Tikait and other leaders are stopped in Yavatmal, then a sit-in protest would be held.

    The administration in Yavatmal district on Thursday ordered curbs on gatherings and also closure of schools (which had reopened for select classes) for ten days in view of the rising cases of coronavirus.

    Tikait, one of the leaders of farmers’ agitation against the new farm laws on Delhi borders, was scheduled to address the rally at Azad Maidan ground in Yavatmal city on Saturday.

    However, the district administration had denied permission for it.

    The organisers said that they have submitted a fresh application to the administration seeking its permission for the public meeting.

    However, response to it is still awaited.

    Talking to PTI, SKM’s Maharashtra co-ordinator Sandip Gidde said, “We are firm on holding the Maha Panchayat in Yavatmal tomorrow.

    Rakesh Tikait along with several other leaders of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha will address the public meeting.

    He will arrive in Nagpur tonight and will address the event at Yavatmal tomorrow.

    ” “But, if Tikait and other leaders are stopped, we will hold a ‘thiyya andolan’ (sit-in) at the very place where they are stopped,” he said.

    The SKM is an umbrella body of farmer unions which is spearheading the protest on Delhi borders.

     

  • Farmers’ rail roko agitation: 25 trains regulated in northern railway zone

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Around 25 trains have been regulated in the northern zone due to the ‘rail roko’ call by farmers protesting the three agri laws on Thursday, a zonal railway spokesperson said.

    He, however, said there has been minimum effect of the agitation on the railways till now.

    “Around 25 trains have been regulated so far. There has been minimum effect on rail services due to the agitation,” Northern Railway spokesperson Deepak Kumar said.

    Regulating trains means they have been either cancelled, short terminated or rerouted.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmer unions which is spearheading the protest, last week had announced the rail blockade to press for its demand to repeal the legislations.

    The SKM had said the blockade will be held across the country from 12 pm to 4 pm.

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

    While the complete details of the effects of ‘rail roko’ call has not yet been provided by the railways, an official, on condition of anonymity, said its effects could be seen in Ambala where a huge group had congregated.

    In stations near Delhi too, protestors have stated to gather on the tracks.

    Protesters have also gathered near the Gazipur border at Modinagar railway station, the official said.

    Some effects of the ‘rail roko’ call was also felt at Kurukshetra in Haryana where farmers climbed on the locomotive of Gita Jayanti Express train, which was stationary at that time, resulting in delays.

    Farmers also blocked train tracks at Charkhi Dadri railway station in Haryana and served ‘jalebis’, tea and snacks to other protestors, police as well as railway officials.

    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 also blocked a rail track in Mohali district, they said.

    Security has been tightened in both Haryana and Punjab, with personnel of the government railway police and the state police force being deployed there, officials said.

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

    Officials said the movement of trains is likely to be delayed because of the farmers’ rail blockade.

    Train services will be resumed after following due security protocols once the agitation is over, they said.

     

  • After opposition parties, now agitating farmer unions demand release of climate activist Disha Ravi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, which is leading the agitation against new agri laws, on Monday again demanded the release of 21-year-old environmental activist Disha Ravi.

    Ravi was arrested on Saturday from Bengaluru by Delhi Police, which alleged that she, along with Mumbai lawyer Nikita Jacob and Pune-based engineer Shantanu, created the “toolkit” related to the farmers’ agitation and shared it with others to tarnish India’s image.

    “We are deeply concerned and anguished about the brazen misuse of police power by the government in its efforts to weaken the ongoing farmers’ movement. We condemn the arrest of young environmental activist Disha Ravi without due procedures being followed. SKM demands her immediate unconditional release,” the umbrella body of farmer unions said in a statement.

    The police on Monday said that “all due procedures were followed” in Ravi’s arrest.

    The SKM had on Sunday also demanded Ravi’s release.

    Climate activist Greta Thunberg had shared the “toolkit” to lend her support to the farmers’ agitation against the three new agri laws.

    In the document, various urgent actions, including creating a Twitter storm and protesting outside Indian embassies, were listed to rally support for the farmers’ protest.

    The “toolkit” has been cited by some critics as “proof” of a conspiracy to fuel protests in India The SKM said it will commemorate on Tuesday the contributions of Sir Chhotu Ram, a prominent politician of Punjab province before independence, for peasant consciousness.

    “The Unionist Party that he set up brought in a law against usury in the 1930s, that protected peasants from the clutches of moneylenders and restored the right of land to the tiller of the land.

    “Sir Chhotu Ram is also credited for establishing the mandi system in India, and it is this system that the present farmers’ movement seeks to protect and improve,” the union body said in a statement.

    “On February 16, SKM calls on all its constituents to organise meetings that explain the contributions of Sir Chhotu Ram and the need to further strengthen the ongoing movement, taking inspiration from exemplary people like him,” it added.

    Farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at three Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — for nearly 80 days to press for the repeal of the three agri laws and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP).

  • Farmer unions demand high-level judicial inquiry into FIRs registered over R-Day violence

    Express News Service
    CHANDIGARH: Farmer unions have demanded a high-level judicial inquiry into the violence that took place in Delhi on Republic Day. They said that 16 persons are still missing and alleged that Delhi Police is trying to implicate farmers in false cases.

    “Initially, 122 farmers were booked, most of them on charges of attempt to murder and dacoity. The purpose of booking them on these charges is to sabotage the agitation and make sure that farmers are behind bars for long… The police are trying to spread terror,” said Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s legal cell head Prem Singh Bhangu.

    ALSO READ| Punjab farmer part of protests at Singhu dies of cardiac arrest

    Bhangu and advocate Kuldeep Singh demanded a juridical probe by a retired Supreme Court or high court judge. “The innocent are being framed in false cases,” they alleged.  The farmer leaders said they visited Tihar Jail on Friday to speak to those arrested. They informed that the Morcha has arranged Rs 2000 per heed for canteen expenses for the persons held there.

    They said it was the responsibility of Delhi Police to trace the 16 missing. “These people went missing from the national capital. We have sent a written representation, but the police are keeping mum. Of the 16, nine are from Haryana, one from Rajasthan and rest from Punjab. Of the 122 in custody, 10 have been granted bail,” said Bhangu.

    ALSO READ| Farm laws: Footfall at mahapanchayats emboldens unions

    Accusing the police of harassing the farmers, the unions have promised to stand by them. Rajinder Singh, member of the Morcha’s legal team, said that farmers can approach their legal cell for assistance. He said that 122 farmers had been arrested by Delhi Police in connection with 14 of the 44 FIRs. “We are still to get copies of 22 FIRs. Two farmers went to police after getting notices and were arrested. We will provide legal and financial aid to the arrested farmers,” said Singh.

  • Farm laws: Footfall at mahapanchayats emboldens unions 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, body of farmer unions leading the protest against the new farm laws, claimed on Friday that over 10,000 farmers participated in ‘mahapanchayats’ in Bilari and Bahadurgarh.

    “The impressive series of farmer mahapanchayats continue to unfold in a massive outpour of support. Today, tens of thousands of farmers participated in Bilari and Bahadurgarh mahapanchayats,” it said in a statement.

    “Farmers vowed that they will not allow corporations to profiteer in the name of ‘Food’ and at the expense of farmers. Hunger is not a business opportunity and shame on those governments and corporations that think so,” the statement said.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) said 228 protestors have sacrificed their lives and became martyrs in the present agitation. “It is shameful that the government is admitting on the floor of parliament that it has no plans to extend support to the families of such martyrs. The government is to be blamed squarely for the lives lost. how many more lives does the government want to see sacrificed before it agrees to the legitimate demands of the protestors? We condemn the insensitivity of the government,” the farmers’ body asserted.

    Meanwhile, a signature campaign was launched at Singhu border demanding the release of Dalit rights activist Navdeep Kaur, who was arrested from the protest site. In another development, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait revealed plans by unions to hold meetings in PM Modi’s home state Gujarat and said protesters in Delhi will not return home until the Centre reaches an “ agreement” with them.

  • Farmers announce four-hour nationwide Rail Roko on February 18

    By Express News Service
    CHANDIGARH: The leaders of the protesting farmers on Wednesday announced that they will hold a nation-wide rail roko from 12-4 pm on February 18.

    After a meeting of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha in which all farmers leaders participated at the Singhu border, the president of Krantikari Kisan Union Punjab Dr Darshan Pal said four decisions have been taken to intensify the movement. 

    ALSO READ: ‘Congress will scrap new farm laws if voted to power’ – Priyanka Gandhi at mahapanchayat

    “It has been decided that on February 18, Rail Roko programmes will be held for four hours across the country from 12 to 4 PM. And from February 12, all road toll plazas in Rajasthan will be made toll-free on the pattern of Punjab and Haryana.”

    “It has also been decided that on February 14, candle march and mashaal (torch) march will be organised across the country in memory of the sacrifice of the martyred soldiers in the Pulwama attack, and on February 16, the farmers will celebrate the birth anniversary of Sir Chhoturam,” said Pal.

    ALSO READ: Rajasthan Congress MLA reaches Assembly on tractor to show support for farmers

    Another farmer leader said, “The All India Kisan Sangarsh Coordination Committee will work out the details and coordinate for the success of the protest programmes.”

    Meanwhile, addressing the farmers at Singhu border, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said that they were not expecting at any change in the government at the Centre but a solution to their problems. Tikait further said many of their leaders will tour different parts of the country to spread the movement.

    ALSO READ: Rakesh Tikait address ‘mahapanchayat’ at Kurukshetra, criticises PM Narendra Modi’s remark on protesters

    “We do not aim to change the government at the Centre. The government should do its work. We want it to repeal the farm laws and ensure law on MSP,” he said.

    Tikait added that the agitation against the farm laws will stretch till the Centre addresses the farmers’ issues.

    The farmers are demanding a complete rollback of the new farm reform laws and a guarantee on the Minimum Support Price (MSP).

  • Ready for talks, government should come with new proposal, farmers say; Tikait calls for ‘tractor revolution’

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Protesting farmer unions Saturday said they are ready to resume talks with the government, but asked it to come up with a fresh proposal as the existing offer to put the three farm laws on hold for 12-18 months is not acceptable to them.

    The unions, however, made it clear that they would not settle for anything less than the repeal of the three contentious laws.

    Addressing a press conference at the Singhu border here, Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s senior leader Darshan Pal said the ball is now in the government’s court now.

    “We are ready to talk. The ball is in the government’s court. We clearly told them that their last proposal (of suspending the farm laws for 12-18 months) was not acceptable to us. Now, they should come up with a new proposal,” he told reporters.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farm unions leading the protests at the city border points, thanked all global personalities for their support to the protests.

    He said the farmers have been on the agitation for “many months and many farmers have been martyred”.

    “It is a shame that at the behest of the government, some people want to suppress this movement by calling it as an ‘internal matter’, but it is necessary to understand that in democracy, people are superior, not the government,” it stated.

    ALSO READ | Repeal farm laws without further delay: Sukhbir Badal to Modi government

    The assertion comes in the backdrop of support extended by some global celebrities such as singer Rihanna and climate activist Greta Thunberg to the farmers’ protests against the three laws.

    Talking about the Saturday’s ‘chakka jam’, the farmer leader claimed it got a huge nationwide support which once again “proved” that farmers across the country are united against these farm laws.

    Pal also condemned Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s statement in Parliament on Friday.

    “He (Tomar) insulted the struggle of farmers of India by saying that only one state’s farmers are opposing the agricultural laws,” Pal said.

    Countering the Opposition’s claim that farmers across the country are agitated over the three laws, Tomar had on Friday said in Rajya Sabha that peasants of just one state are being misinformed and instigated.

    After the 11th round of talks on January 22, the government’s negotiations with the representatives of thousands of protesting farmers had hit a roadblock as the unions had rejected the Centre’s proposal to put three contentious laws on hold.

    The government had asked unions to revert by January 23 in case they agree to the suspension proposal and the talks can continue only thereafter.

    However, the unions remained firm on their demands.

    “Despite all the conspiracies of the government and anti-social elements, the SKM stands on the demand for the complete repeal of all the three laws and legal guarantee of the MSP,” Samyukta Kisan Morcha said in the Saturday statement.

    India had Wednesday hit out at global celebrities such as singer Rihanna and Thunberg for their support of the farmers’ protests, the focus of a sharply polarised international debate that saw several Bollywood and cricket stars and top ministers rally around the government in its pushback.

    The SKM claimed that according to the information compiled so far, 204 agitators have died in the ongoing movement, but the government is still ignoring the pain of farmers.

    ALSO READ | Centre should accept protesting farmers’ demands: Sisodia

    Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at three Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — for over 70 days, demanding a repeal of the three farm laws.

    Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait on Saturday called on peasants across the country to join the “tractor revolution” as part of the ongoing protests at Delhi’s borders against the new agri laws introduced by the Centre.

    During a speech to supporters at the Ghazipur protest site, Tikait reached out to the farming community, many of whom especially in the Delhi-NCR region have been upset over the National Green Tribunal’s ban on diesel vehicles, including tractors, that are over 10 years old.

    “The tractors which run in the farms will now run at the NGT’s office in Delhi also. Until recently, they had not asked which vehicles are 10 years old. What is their plan? Phase out tractors older than 10 years and help the corporates? But the tractors older than 10 years will also run and the movement (for repeal of the new farm laws) will also be strengthened,” Tikait, 51, told the crowd amid cheers.

    ALSO READ | Business as usual at Singhu border as action shifts to other highways

    He said more and more farmers across the country will participate in the ongoing farmers’ stir for rollback of the contentious laws.

    Recently, 20,000 tractors were in Delhi and the next target is taking that number to 40 lakh, Tikait said.

    He also called on tractor owners to attach their vehicles with the ‘tractor kraanti’ (tractor revolution).

    “Write ‘Tractor Kranti 2021, 26 January’ on your tractors. Wherever you will go, you will be respected. We have a target of 40 lakh tractors,” he said.

    The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader, whose emotional appeal recently had revived the protest that was losing momentum post the January 26 violence in Delhi, also called on villagers to bring a fistful of soil from their farmlands to the agitation sites and take back a similar amount of ‘mitti’ of the revolution from the protest sites.

    ALSO READ | ‘Negative powers’ attempting to create misconceptions over farm laws will fail: Jitendra Singh

    “Go and spread this revolutionary soil in your farmlands and never will traders look at your farmlands (to usurp it),” Tikait said.

    Exhorting supporters to keep the momentum going, he asked them to be prepared to reach protest sites as the agitation at Ghazipur, Tikri and Singhu border points of Delhi could go on till October.

    “Be prepared at villages, whenever a call is made, reach the protest the way the youth (from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh) has done (after the January 26 episode),” he said.

    Ghazipur has earlier witnessed the influence of Tikait over the farmers’ community in north India when hundreds of people, including women and children, from villages in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand reached here with water and home-made food on the BKU leader’s call.

    Tikait had made a call for water and food from villages following disruptions in water supply at the protest site by local authorities in the wake of the January 26 violence.

  • Fortification continues at Ghazipur, farmers gear up for February 6 ‘chakka jaam’

    By PTI
    GHAZIABAD: Stringent security continued on Wednesday at Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, one of the key protest sites where thousands of farmers are camping with a demand that the Centre repeal the new agri-marketing laws enacted last September.

    Internet services remained disrupted for the fifth day at the site on Delhi’s outskirts where protesters are occupying a stretch of the Delhi-Meerut highway since November, even as a Ghaziabad Police officer told PTI that online connectivity has been restored but there could be glitches.

    While scores of people on tractor-trailers continued to pour in Ghazipur from the Uttar Pradesh side of the highway, several farmers left for their native places with a resolve to make the February 6 “chakka jaam” a success in their regions, Bharatiya Kisan Union media in-charge Dharmendra Malik said.

    People also came in from districts like Amroha and Bijnor in western UP, he said, adding among prominent ones were Samajwadi Party MLA Parvez Ali, who has extended support to the farmers’ movement here.

    BKU’s Ghaziabad unit president Bijender Singh who was present at the UP Gate (Ghazipur) said preparations were on to make the Saturday’s “chakka jaam” (blocking of roads as a form of protest) a success.

    The call for the February 6 stir has been given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmer unions protesting the farm laws.

    Some of the people who reached the protest site said they faced problems reaching the site due to the barricading of Ghazipur from three sides, while some camping here since a few days rued the lack of mobile toilets and water while others struggled with internet connectivity.

    “We had to take a long detour instead of a straight and short route to Ghazipur,” a man who reached here with a group of supporters in a tractor-trailer from Haryana told a TV channel.

    The Union Ministry of Home Affairs had announced suspension of internet services at the three border points of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur and their adjoining areas from 11 pm on January 29 till 11 pm on January 31.

    Later it extended the suspension till 11 pm on February 2.

    “There has been no further extension of internet suspension at these sites as of now,” a Home Ministry official said on Wednesday.

    BKU’s Meerut zone president Pawan Khatana said the internet was inaccessible at Ghazipur till the time he left for a “mahapanchayat” in Haryana’s Jind with union leader Rakesh Tikait and other supporters.

    Ghaziabad Superintendent of Police (City 2) Gyanendra Singh told PTI that internet services have been restored but there could be glitches or slow speed due to crowd at the protest site.

    BKU’s Malik said the barricading and stringent security measures by the Delhi Police have hit traffic movement, leading to difficulties to people and even ambulances.

    He said farmers are agitating for their demands not to disturb others.

    “The Delhi Police has blocked all routes from the Ghazipur border to Delhi. The one lane which was kept open on the stretch occupied by farmers has closed due to police barricading. The farmers have been demanding to give way to ambulances for two days. With no one hearing our appeal, we have opened a way for ambulances from between our tents and ambulances are being taken out from under the UP Gate flyover and sent to Anand Vihar via Kaushambi,” he said.

    Iron nails studded on roads, multi-layer iron and concrete barricades, concertina wires remained fixed as large number of security personnel were deployed as fortification of Ghazipur continued to prevent protesters’ movement to Delhi.

    On the security apparatus at the protest sites, Delhi Police Commissioner S N Shrivastava had Tuesday told media, “We have only strengthened the barricading so that it is not broken again.”

    Thousands of farmers have been protesting at the Delhi borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; 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 the 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.