NEW DELHI: Farmers protesting against agricultural laws They hardened their stance on Tuesday and called for a complete blockade of the Chilla border between Delhi and Noida on Wednesday in an attempt to force the BJP-led NDA government to scrap the three farm laws. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that there is a conspiracy by opposition parties to confuse farmers about the new laws.
Here are the top 10 developments of the day:
1. By hardening their stance on the laws, peasant leaders said they will “make” the government repeal these laws and assert that their fight has reached a point where they are “determined” to win it no matter what. They said they will completely block the Chilla border between Delhi and Noida on Wednesday to press for their demands, adding that the farmers’ unions are not escaping the bargaining, but that the government should heed their demands and come up with concrete proposals. At a press conference on the Singhu border, farmer leader Jagjeet Singh Dallewal said: “The government is saying ‘we will not repeal these laws,’ we are saying we will force them to do so.”
2. During his visit to Gujarat, Prime Minister Modi said that a conspiracy is brewing to confuse farmers about the new agricultural laws and accused the opposition of using farmers’ shoulders to fire their guns. As the farmers’ protest outside Delhi entered the 20th day, Modi made a strong pitch in favor of the farm laws enacted in September, describing them as historic, and saying his government was ready to remove any doubts about the laws. Without naming names, Modi, on a one-day visit to Gujarat, said that opposition parties supporting the protest, when in power, were in favor of similar reforms in the agricultural sector. To reinforce his point, Modi gave the example of two sectors in Gujarat, his home state, that flourished without government intervention. He said that the dairy and fisheries sectors in the state grew exponentially without much intervention from the state government, as the business is mainly run by leaders of the cooperative sector and farmers.
3. During the visit to Gujarat, Prime Minister Modi interacted with farmers from the Kutch district of Gujarat, including farmers from Punjab who have settled there, and also members of a local self-help group (SHG). The separate interactions took place on the sidelines of an event where Modi, on a one-day visit to Gujarat, laid the cornerstones of a series of projects in the border district. The prime minister met with Punjab farmer delegations settled in the Kutch district as well as local growers and heard their problems with Prime Minister Vijay Rupani who was accompanying him. Sikh farmers cultivate land in areas close to the Indo-Pak border.
4. As the clash continues between the government and farmer groups protesting three new agricultural laws, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the laws have been well received in several states across the country, but that Center he is willing to continue his conversations with “real agricultural unions” to find a solution with an open mind. He also said that the Minimum Subsistence Price (MSP), at which the government agrees to purchase the produce from farmers, is an administrative decision and “will continue as is.”
5. Bharatiya Kisan Union (Kisan) has decided to end the protest it was holding at the district level in Uttar Pradesh for now. Members of the Bharatiya Kisan (Kisan) Union of Uttar Pradesh submitted a memorandum to Tomar with suggestions on the Agricultural Laws and the MSP. BKU (Kisan) has not been part of the 40 or so farmer groups that have been protesting at various borders in the national capital and had attended recent rounds of talks with the center without any progress. According to a statement from the Ministry of Agriculture, Tomar thanked the BKU (Kisan) leaders for supporting the laws and said they have been welcomed in various states in the country. BKU (Kisan) leaders suggested that farmers have the option of going to civil courts in case of dispute. They also suggested that the Panchayat the head should be as important as the mandi’s head to safeguard the rights of farmers in small towns and villages. In the case of the Essential Commodities Act, they suggested that you should avoid hoarding and black marketing.
6. Launch a scathing attack against BJP On the farmers’ protest, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal called the saffron festival the “royal tukde tukde gang”, accusing it of turning Hindus against Sikhs in Punjab. Asking the former ally to avoid the “arrogant attitude” about farm laws and accept what the farmers want, Badal warned the BJP against any attempt to turn Hindus against Sikhs. He said that if you speak in favor of the central government, you are called “Desh Bhakt” and if you speak against, you are branded a “tukde tukde gang”.
7. The leader of Congress, P Chidambaram, asked the government to repeal the laws and present a new bill after reaching an agreement with the peasant agitators. “The government should get off its horse and quickly reach an agreement with the farmers … The easiest way forward is to repeal the current laws and enact a new law based on the agreement. Repeal and re-enactment is good news. well known legislative tool, “Chidambaram said on Twitter.
8. The head of the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, alleged that instead of listening to farmers, the BJP government was “smearing” their protests against the Center’s new agricultural laws. Yadav claimed that the BJP only misleads people. “If he had believed in democratic values, he would not have resorted to lathicharge barbarism against peaceful protesters. By sending ‘samajwadis’ to jail for supporting farmers, he has done illegal and undemocratic work,” he added.
9. The leaders and workers of the Delhi Congress held a protest near the BJP headquarters in the national capital against the laws. Some of the protesters who tried to cross the barricades outside the BJP headquarters in DDU Marg were detained by the police. Leading the protesters, Dehi Congress President Anil Kumar said that if the agricultural laws are implemented in the current way, the country’s agricultural sector will be controlled by large corporations.
10. The Jaipur-Delhi National Highway in the Alwar district of Rajasthan remained partially blocked on Tuesday as farmers’ protest against the center’s new agricultural laws entered the third day there. The farmers were led by Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav, PCM legislator Balwan Poonia, and former legislator Amra Ram. “We don’t know why the police and the Haryana government are detaining us. We do not demand anything of them. This act of the Haryana government is not democratic, “Yadav told reporters.
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