Three weeks after Parliament passed three controversial land bills, protests against the laws continue to rage in Punjab and Haryana. When two of the pieces of legislation were presented during a chaotic session in Parliament on September 20, some opposition MPs claimed that they would prove to be the “death sentence” for the agricultural sector.
Although the ruling Bharatiya Janata party dismissed these concerns, many farmers in Punjab and Haryana are not convinced. They have adopted a variety of strategies, some time-tested, some more novel, to express their misgivings.
The laws make regulations on the sale, price and storage of agricultural products more flexible. They allow farmers to sell to private actors outside the mandis or markets notified by the Agricultural Products Market Committees established by the state government. These committees aim to ensure that large retailers do not exploit farmers and regulate their payments.
The new laws also allow contract farming through agreements with private sector companies.
But farmers have criticized the laws for allowing corporations to enter the agricultural sector. They are also concerned that this marks the end of the minimum support price offered by the government for some commodities.
In Haryana, the ire of the farmers has been directed at Senior Deputy Minister Dushyant Chautala, the founder of the Jannayak Janta Party that rules the state in alliance with the BJP. During the Haryana Assembly elections in 2019, Chautala sought votes from the rural part of the state who claimed to support farmers’ rights. But once the farm laws were passed in Parliament, Chautala supported them, The Indian Express reported.
Here are three tactics farmers have adopted.
1 Gheraoing facilities owned by corporations
As part of its protests against farm laws, the Bharatiya Kisan Union in Punjab has been besieging corporate-run facilities that run grain storage plants, corporate-operated toll plazas and power plants, it reported. The rostrum September 28.
Riding on tractors, several farmers protested in front of the home of former state government minister and BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia in Jalandhar, reported The rostrum October 1st. From there, the protest went to the home of MP Hans Raj Hans in northwest Delhi located in the area.
On the same day, farmers from the Kirti Kisan Union, the Azaad Kisan Sangharsh Committee, the Kisan Sangharsh Committee and the Bharatiya Kisan Union protested in front of the house of BJP deputy Rajya Sabha Shwait Malik in Amritsar, according to The Tribune.
On October 4, Punjab farmers protested in front of fueling stations run by Reliance Petroleum and Essar Group in Sangur district villages such as Kheri, Malerkotla, Lehra, Bhawanigarh, Sunam, Benra, Toor Banjara and Katron, and Bhotna, Dhaula, Mana Pindi and Sanghera. towns of the Barnala district, reported the Hindustan Times.
“We have been holding protests against corporate houses owned by friends of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Roop Singh, a member of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, in the report. “Big companies want to take our land away from us. When these people face losses, they will complain to Modi, who will know about our protests. ”
In Haryana, protesters shouted slogans at Senior Deputy Minister Dushyant Chautala while he was in Cheeka, a town in the Kaithal district to launch a project on September 29. Jagran reported. Some farmers said that Chautala had promised them their rights before gaining political power. But now he supported the Center’s new laws, according to the report.
On Tuesday, farmers in the state decided to stage a gherao or blockade in front of the houses of Dushyant Chautala and Cabinet Minister Ranjit Chautala in Sirsa.
In the time of # COVID-19 epidemic, and at the peak of the harvest season, a sea of #Farmers is pouring Dushehra on the ground #Sirsa, to protest against #FarmBills. Today, farmers will make gherao at the residences of Haryana MP CM Dushyant Chautala and Electricity Minister Ranjit Chautala. pic.twitter.com/k0Zb86nMyj
– Ramandeep Singh Mann (@ ramanmann1974) October 6, 2020
#FarmersProtest #Sirsa
Farmers march towards Dushyant Chautala’s residence in Sirsa.
There are no political parties, under the banners of 17 peasant groups. pic.twitter.com/NrmtzzcYPy– Archis Mohan अर्चिस (@ArchisMohan) October 6, 2020
Meanwhile, the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee announced a gherao from the national capital on November 26-27 to protest against agricultural laws.
2 Blockade of roads and railways
In Haryana, the Bharatiya Kisan Union called on farmers to block roads to protest against the laws. Farmers organized sit-ins in Ambala, Kurukshetra and Yamunanagar on September 25. The times of India reported.
In the Dinarpur village of Ambala, they blocked the 444A National Highway that runs through the entire state and burned effigies and billboards of BJP Party leaders and Jannayak Janta in the Dau Majra village of Kurukshetra, according to the report. In Yamunanagar, farmers supporting the Bharatiya Kisan Union sat on the Ambala-Saharanpur train tracks in Sudhal and Mehrampur villages, according to the report.
In Punjab, 31 farmer groups announced an indefinite “rail roko” or railway blockade in the state starting on Oct. 1, it reported. The Indian Express.
Farmers blocked train tracks in the state’s Sangrur, Sunam and Barnala districts on October 4.
However, the chief minister, Amarinder Singh, urged farmers to ease the blockade of the railways on October 5. The New Indian Express reported. Singh said the blockade had prevented freight trains carrying coal from entering the state. Coal, he said, was essential to running the state’s power plants and they had a supply that could last up to five or six days.
However, the lockdown continued, however, as the farmers of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee blocked train tracks in Amritsar on October 6.
3 black flags waving
Once the laws were enacted, the Haryana unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party ordered all its elected representatives to visit their constituencies to speak with farmers about the new provisions. However, farmers began waving black flags at their elected representatives to express their discontent.
On September 27, farmers waved black flags at Haryana’s Minister of Agriculture, JP Dalal, when he was in the village of Mundlana in Sonipat. The rostrum reported.
On October 1, farmers affiliated with the Bharatiya Kisan Union displayed black flags to Kurukshetra MP Nayak Singh Saini and former Haryana State Government Minister Karan Dev Kamboj as leaders addressed a public meeting on the laws. farms in Radaur, a town in Yamunanagar district, reported Hindustan Times.
The next day Sunita Duggal, a deputy from Sirsa, and the farmers showed her black flags when she visited the village of Odhan in her constituency, the Hindustan Times reported. However, Duggal dismissed the protest claiming that the farmers displaying their black flags were congressional workers, according to the report.
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