Farmers’ protest march in Delhi: Farmers have risen up in arms against new farm laws
New Delhi:
Farmers in Punjab, protesting against the Center’s new agricultural laws, rejected a proposal by Union Interior Minister Amit Shah to discuss their complaints. The farmers said the offer was conditional: the minister had said that they should move their protest to a designated place in the national capital if they accept the talks. The farmers’ decision came after a meeting this morning, shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his monthly Mann ki Baat radio address, showed his support for farm laws, saying that “agricultural reforms” have “liberated” farmers and given them “new rights and opportunities.”
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“The agricultural reforms of the past few days have also opened new doors of possibility for our farmers,” said Prime Minister Modi. “The demands that farmers have made for years, that all the political parties, at some point or another, promised to fulfill, those demands have been met,” he added.
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Claiming that the government is imposing conditions on the talks, the farmers said they would sit on the Delhi borders for now. Swaraj India director Yogendra Yadav is part of a 7-member farmers committee that made the decision to reject the offer.
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Farmers fear that the protest sites the government suggests could be turned into prisons, an apprehension that began after Delhi police suggested they be imprisoned in stadiums. However, the Arvind Kejriwal government had rejected that proposal.
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On Saturday, the Union Minister of the Interior, Amit Shah, had assured the protesters that the government was ready to deliberate on “all the problems and demands”. The Center, he said, will hold talks with farmers’ unions on December 3, and if they want discussions before then, they will have to move their protest to a designated location.
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Jagjit Singh, Punjab chairman of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, said farmers have reservations about the offer. Squatting on the Singhu (Delhi-Haryana) border, Singh said: “Amit Shah ji has asked for an early meeting on one condition; it is not good. He should have offered open-hearted talks without any conditions.”
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“If the government really wants to have talks, they should come to the Singhu border. This government doesn’t want to talk to the farmers at all; they just want to show off in front of the country and show everyone that the farmers don’t.” “We want a dialogue. agricultural laws are removed, that’s all, “said Jaskaran Singh of Kisan Union Amristar.
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On the Delhi-Haryana border near Narela, farmers, meanwhile, broke through police barricades to enter the national capital.
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After fighting water cannons, tear gas and police barricades for three days, thousands of farmers from various states, including Punjab and Haryana, arrived at the gates of Delhi on Friday.
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Those who managed to enter the city are camping in a field in north Delhi. . Thousands more remained at the border points, not deciding whether to go to the place of the demonstration identified by the police. At the Singhu and Tikri borders, thousands of farmers in trucks, tractors and other vehicles refused to budge.
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Farmers have faced farm laws, which have allowed them to bypass middlemen and sell directly to any market anywhere in the country. Farmers say the new laws will lead to the phasing out of the existing system, in which the government assures them of fixed prices. The new system, they say, will also leave them at the mercy of big corporations.
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