Protesting farmer organisations say won't accept conditional talks; to continue blockade
- by Lorene Schwartz
- in People
- — Dec 1, 2020
The SFJ earlier this week had called upon farmers of Punjab and Haryana to raise Khalistan flag at the India Gate here on the 12th anniversary of a terrorist attack in Mumbai on November 26, following which the national capital was put on high alert.
The party asserted that the protesters' demand on the three anti-farmer Acts were perfectly legitimate, secular and constitutional. "We will block all five entry point to Delhi", Surjeet S Phul, Bhartiya Kisan Union's Punjab president, told reporters.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also appealed to the people of the city to extend all possible help to the farmers and urged the Centre to hold talks with them at the earliest. "They are not concerned about the farmers" issues, ' Singh said.
Protesting farmers on Sunday rejected the Indian government's offer to hold immediate talks if they ended their blockades of key highways as they seek the scrapping of legislation they say could devastate crop prices.
The farmers have expressed apprehension that the Centre's farm laws would pave the way for dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the "mercy" of big corporates.
It also stated that unlike previous economic reforms which had been passed by minority governments "by stealth", the three Central farm laws had been passed by a government which enjoyed a comfortable majority under "an unquestioned leader". It was not immediately clear when the farmer's rally would be held. "We will see and experience benefits of these new laws in the coming days", he said.
India deployed hundreds of police and paramilitary forces at a New Delhi border yesterday as thousands of farmers from neighbouring states blocked major roads into the capital, in a protest against agricultural deregulation. "The fact is that the BJP and its governments at the Centre and in Haryana have got jittery by the success of the farmers' secular and democratic movement", he said.
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General secretary Jagmohan Singh said at Singhu Border (Delhi-Haryana), "We couldn't have a meeting with farmers' organisations from all the states".
The farmers have come prepared for a long haul, their vehicles loaded with rations, utensils, quilts and blankets for the cold and equipped with even charging points for their phones.
The closure of borders has also resulted in heavy traffic on other alternative routes between Delhi and Haryana. "This is our worry", said a protesting farmer Ranveer Singh at Singhu border here.
"Farmers will have to recognise that the reality of the laws will not change", the editorial by the Hindustan Times said and added that farmer protests "primarily led by land-owning agriculturists of Punjab" had raised questions about the country's political economy and the salience of identity politics in Punjab.
"Some farmers unions and farmers have demanded that talks be held immediately instead of December 3.
But at the moment thousands of farmers are saying that getting the Centre's farm laws rolled back is the first priority as these will anyway destroy them", he said.
