Protesting farmers vow ‘decisive battle’; PM targets opposition

NEW DELHI, Nov 30:

Farmers have come to Delhi for a “decisive battle” and will continue their stir against the new agri-marketing laws, their leaders asserted today, unmoved by the appeals of the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who defended the legislation and accused the opposition of “playing tricks” on farmers again through misinformation.
The opposition parties too stepped up pressure, asking the Centre to “respect the democratic struggle” of the farmers and repeal the laws.
Peaceful sit-ins by farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, continued for the fifth day at the Singhu and Tikri borders with no untoward incident reported after Friday’s violence, while the numbers of protestors swelled at the Ghazipur border.
“Our demands are non-negotiable,” Jagmohan Singh, general secretary Bhartiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda), said addressing a press conference by representatives of farmers at Singhu border.
“We have come here to fight a decisive battle…. We have come to Delhi to ask the Prime Minister to listen to ‘mann ki baat’ of farmers, else the government and the ruling party will have to pay a heavy price…,” he said.
Security was beefed up by the Delhi Police and concrete barriers placed at all borders points connecting the city with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh as the farmers threatened to block all highways to the national capital after rejecting the Centre’s offer that they shift the protest to Burari to start a dialogue before the scheduled date of December 3.
Long queues of vehicles choked the roads as the Delhi Police kept the Singhu and Tikri borders closed and heightened checking at others.
Amid the rancour of protests, farmers were seen performing ‘Ardas’ (prayer) at the Haryana-Delhi border and distributing ‘karah parshad’ among the people on Guru Nanak Jayanti.
At dusk, earthen lamps were placed on the barricades by the protesting farmers who exchanged sweets while preparing for another winter night in their tractor-trollys which have been turned into makeshift shelters.
Many protesters said that they have come prepared for a long haul with rations and other necessities.
With no breakthrough in sight, several Union Ministers and BJP leaders again urged the farmers not to have “misconceptions” about these reforms which, they asserted, have nothing to do with the mechanism of minimum support price (MSP) and ‘mandi’ that will continue along with the Government’s purchase of grains.
The Prime Minister, who was visiting his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi, too allayed concerns that MSP and mandi mechanism would be discontinued, even as he attacked the opposition.
“The farmers are being deceived on these historic agriculture reform laws by the same people who have misled them for decades,” he said, in an apparent reference to parties that are supporting the protest.
He reiterated that farmers who wanted to follow the old system of trading – referring to the ‘mandis’ where they can get the MSP – are still free to do so. But the three laws gave them new options to sell for more, he said.
He said whenever new laws are enacted questions are bound to be asked.
“But presently a new trend is being seen in the country. The protests are based on creating doubts through misinformation,” Modi said at a public gathering.
“We must remember that those doing so are the ones who had for decades deceived farmers,” he claimed. The MSP used to be declared but very little procurement was done on it, he claimed.
“Farmers have faced deceit on MSP, loan waiver schemes, urea and productivity for a long time in the past,” he said.
He claimed that it is because of this “long history of deceit” that farmers are again wary as they are seeing the new move in the same manner.
Though the protesting farmers have been adamant about not allowing any political party to use their platform, the opposition has come out in their support.
The Congress launched a social media campaign to muster support for the farmers and said its members will extend assistance to the protesters, while the DMK and its allies too issued a statement slamming the Government’s stand.
“The Modi government has persecuted the farmer – first it brought black laws and then used lathis against them, but it forgot that when the farmer raises his voice, it resonates throughout the country. You also raise your voice against the exploitation of farmers and join the #SpeakUpForFarmers campaign,” Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.
A joint statement was issued by DMK president M K Stalin, TNCC chief K S Alagiri, MDMK general secretary Vaiko, CPI(M) state secretary K Balakrishnan, Communist Party of India state secretary R Mutharasan and others slamming the Centre’s stand.
“More than 500 farmer unions from across India have rallied on behalf of the country’s 62 million farmers. We all strongly condemn the dictatorial, hegemonic BJP government for disregarding this massive rally and stipulating that negotiations will only take place only if the farmers go to the Burari ground,” it said.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed to the people of Delhi to help the protesters and urged the Centre to hold talks with them at the earliest.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) is a constituent of the BJP-led, expressed the hope that the Centre will be able to allay the fears about MSP in its dialogue with the farmers.
“The Centre has proposed to hold talks with the agitating farmers. Once they sit across the table, it will become clear that fears over MSP are unfounded,” he told reporters. (PTI)