While addressing a press conference on December 20 at the Singhu border in Delhi, peasant leaders had asked people protesting against the laws to hit the utensils during the program, in the same way that the Prime Minister he had asked in March for the ‘thalis’ (steel plates) to be struck.
Modi had asked people to express gratitude to those at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus and the extension of essential services, giving a five-minute standing ovation by clapping, banging plates or ringing bells.
The farmers beat the “thalis” during the protests in Amritsar, Ferozepur, The districts of Sangrur, Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda, Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur in Punjab and Rohtak and Jind districts in Haryana, among other places in the two states.
“The common people are also with the farmers in their agitation against the farm laws,” said a protester in Amritsar as he hit a “thali” with a spoon and lifted “Jai kisan“motto.
In many places, farmers, joined by people from other sectors of society, launched slogans against the BJP-led government in the Center.
The head of the Haryana Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), Gurnam Singh Chaduni, went to the Makrauli toll plaza in Rohtak district together with a group of farmers to protest against the laws.
They beat ‘thalis’ with shoes during the prime minister’s monthly radio broadcast.
“We are here to oppose Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’. We are registering this protest because the prime minister only says what he has to say without listening to the voice of the people,” Chaduni said during the protest.
He said comments have been received from farmers protesting that the charging of road tolls in Haryana should be stopped until the Center accepts the demands of the agitated farmers.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, have protested against the laws since the last week of November at various border points in Delhi, demanding that the laws be repealed.
“We went to a lot of toll barriers and the farmers protesting there said that people should not be charged toll until the government accepts our demands,” said the BKU leader.
Intensifying their agitation against the Center’s new agricultural laws, farmers on December 20 had also announced that they would stop collecting tolls on Haryana’s roads from December 25 to 27.
“From December 25 to 27, we will not allow all the toll booths in Haryana to collect tolls, we will prevent them from doing so. On December 27, our prime minister will say his ‘Mann ki baat’ and we want to appeal to people to beat up the ‘thalis’ during his speech, in the same way that the prime minister had asked the country to hit the utensils for the coronavirus, “said BKU leader Jagjeet Singh Dalewala at the press conference.
When the prime minister speaks, “we call on people across the country to beat the utensils in their homes for the duration of their program to drown their Mann Ki Baat,” he had said.
Farmers protest against the 2020 Farmer Price Assurance and Agricultural Services (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement, the 2020 Trade in Agricultural Products and Trade (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, and the Essential Products (Amendment) Act 2020 .
The three farm laws, enacted in September, have been projected by the government as major reforms in the agricultural sector that will cut out middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country.
However, protesting farmers have expressed their fear that the new laws would pave the way to remove the Minimum Livelihood Price safety cushion and wipe out the mandis, leaving them at the mercy of large corporations. The Center has repeatedly stated that these mechanisms will continue.
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