Farmer groups from UP, Haryana and Uttarakhand say they will support farm laws (Archive)
New Delhi:
Around 20,000 members of the Kisan Sena will march from western Uttar Pradesh to Delhi on Thursday to highlight their support for the center’s agricultural laws, setting up a possible clash with thousands of farmers who have been camped around the city’s borders for almost a month in protest of those laws.
The group of laws in favor of agriculture will include farmers from the Braj area of the state, which includes districts such as Mathura, Agra, Firozabad and Hathras, as well as those from the districts of Meerut and Muzaffarnagar, he told the Thakur news agency. Gauri Shankar Singh, Kisan Sena coordinator. PTI.
“We have written to the concerned authorities asking for permission regarding our march to Delhi, but have not received a reply. In any case, around 20,000 Kisan Sena supporters will be on their way to Delhi to meet with the Minister of Agriculture, Narendra Singh Tomar. , Thursday, “he said.
“We want to meet with the minister and inform him that the ongoing protests at the Delhi borders by the Punjab and Haryana unions certainly include farmers, but they do not represent farmers from all over India or other states like UP,” he added .
In recent weeks, various groups said they would back the laws; Last week, Hind Mazdoor Kisan Samiti (also from western UP) met with the Minister of Agriculture with a letter of support. At least two groups from Haryana and one from Uttarakhand have had similar encounters, highlighting an apparent rift in the farming community.
Thousands of farmers camp around Delhi to protest the center’s farm laws (archive)
However, the Hind Mazdoor Kisan Samiti filed other demands, including free education and medical and irrigation facilities for farmers, as well as those related to growing crops.
However, the apparent breakdown has energized the ruling BJP and its defense of the laws, and Tomar last week wrote an eight-page open letter to protesting farmers assuring them that MSP (minimum support prices) and mandis (markets wholesalers) would continue. unaffected.
The letter, tweeted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was the BJP’s first step in their counteroffensive. On Friday, the prime minister will address nine crore farmers in an online meeting. The party has repeatedly accused the opposition and separatist elements of engineering the protests.
However, so far dozens of other farmer groups have stood firm in their attempt to eliminate the three farm laws. They say the laws will leave them at the mercy of companies. The center says the laws allow farmers to sell their produce to markets and at a price they choose.
Several rounds of talks have failed and neither side is willing to give in. The farmers want the laws removed and the center is only willing to modify the most problematic sections.
On Wednesday, the leaders of several of these groups addressed a press conference in Singhu (on the Delhi-Haryana border) and urged the center to submit “concrete proposals in writing.” Earlier they also called for a boycott of the Prime Minister’s policy. Mann ki Baat Sunday speech.
For its part, the center has said it remains open to further talks, but has let farmers set a date and time. Tomar said Wednesday he was “hopeful” for more discussions.
At least 30 deaths have been reported since the protests began last month; Several of these, farmers say, are from the cold of winter, as they are camped out in the open with minimal heating at night.
The protests have also drawn the attention of the international community, something for which the center has expressed its disapproval, calling the comments of foreign leaders and politicians “misinformed” and “unjustified” when it comes to the internal affairs of a Democratic country.
With input from PTI
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