Farmers determined to intensify protests and continue during Lok Sabha polls

A union leader said farmers’ demands have been ignored for years.

New Delhi:

Thousands of farmers attended the ‘Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat’ event at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on Thursday, where a resolution was passed to intensify their protest against the Central farm sector policies and continue during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls incite.

This could be the largest farmers’ rally in the national capital since the farmers’ agitation at Delhi borders ended in 2021 after the Center repealed three contentious farm laws.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella group of farmers’ organizations that spearheaded the 2021 protests, passed a resolution to “increase efforts against the federal government’s policies to save agriculture, food security, land and people’s livelihoods”.

According to the resolution, it also vowed to continue the agitation during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls if its demands are not met.

Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters: “We held a meeting here and sent a message to the government that farmers of our country are united. The government should talk to us to resolve this issue. This This agitation will not stop anytime.” Soon, it will spread from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. “

Mr Tikait said the government wanted to destroy the country by turning farmers into labourers.

“They have ended the ‘mandi’ system in Bihar and now they want to do it across the country. In this way, they want farmers to become labourers,” he said.

He also said the government wanted to break farmers’ unity by forming different farmer unions.

“They want to divide us on the basis of caste, religion, regionalism and language,” he charged.

Krantikari Kisan Union leader Darshan Pal, who also participated in the mahapanchayat, said farmers’ demands have been ignored for years.

“We have been agitating since 2021 and their charter has been sent to the president and prime minister, but nothing has happened so far,” he said.

“Today, we discussed the same issue and once again informed the farmers who came here from across the country of our demands. We also passed a resolution to continue the agitation and target the policies of the BJP during the elections,” he added.

Mr Pal also expressed dissatisfaction with the limited rally allowed by the Delhi Police at Ramlila Maidan.

“We were not allowed to go to Delhi. The permission for the ‘mahapanchayat’ was obtained at the last minute but there were some restrictions like only 5,000 farmers could come. The farmers were not allowed to go to the gurdwara and they were also stopped at the railway station .”,” he claimed.

The farmers also raised slogans against the Union government at the protest sites. Some women farmers also joined the protests.

Different farmers carried yellow, red, blue and white flags to indicate their affiliation with different farm unions.

Farmers from states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal come to participate in the mahapanchayat.

Harman Singh, a farmer from Patiala in Punjab, said he arrived in the capital on Wednesday evening.

“We want the Centre’s policies to be beneficial to farmers. We also want our demand for minimum support price (MSP) for crops to be met,” he said.

Ravinder Singh, a farmer from Bathinda in Punjab, said action should be taken against the accused in the October 2021 violence that broke out in Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh.

“We want action to be taken against the person who drove his car into a farmer in Lakhimpur Kheri. The victim’s family should get compensation and a government job,” he said.

Rayak Singh, who carried a small plow on his shoulders, said he came to Delhi from Himachal Pradesh and was dissatisfied with the Centre’s policies.

“My family is completely dependent on agriculture for livelihood and if the situation of farmers remains the same, we will have to opt for other jobs,” said Singh.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)