Tag: Farmers March

Samyukta Kisan Morcha

Samyukta Kisan Morcha To Hold Marches To Raj Bhawans On Nov 26

By LokMarg

Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Thursday announced that it would conduct large farmers’ marches to Raj Bhavans on the second anniversary of the SKM-led farmers’ struggle and submit a memorandum to the President Droupadi Murmu through the respective Governors on November 26.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, SKM leaders including Darshan Pal, Hannan Mollah, Yudhvir Singh, Avik Saha, and Ashok Dhawale gave a call to all the farmers of the country to hold the march.
With many other demands, SKM has asked the government to provide a legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP) for all the crops that should be set at a profit margin of 50 percent.

The farmers have also demanded legal action against union minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni, who is accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri massacre of farmers and journalists.

SKM leaders also demanded a comprehensive and effective crop insurance scheme to speedily compensate farmers for crop loss due to natural calamities, farmers’ pension of Rs 5,000 per month to all marginal, small, and medium-scale farmers and agricultural workers, and withdrawal of all false cases against farmers during the SKM movement and also payment of compensation to families of all farmers who were martyred during SKM movement, along with the major local demands of the respective states.

It was on 26 November 2020 when SKM had launched the historic “March to Delhi” which became the world’s longest and largest farmer’s movement and led to the astounding victory of farmers against the corporate-political nexus to oust farmers from their land and livelihood, the SKM press release said.

SKM’s National Council held a meeting on 14 November 2022 at Gurudwara Rakabganj, New Delhi, and strongly condemned the Narendra Modi-led ruling government for “betraying” the farmers.

According to the statement by the Morcha, the government betrayed the farmers of the country by not implementing the written assurances made on 9 December 2021 on legally guaranteed MSP.

The meeting resolved to advise all constituent organisations to be prepared to further intensify the struggle across the country.

“The March to Raj Bhawan across India marks the beginning of the next phase of the farmer’s protest. Hence, SKM appealed to all farmers to prepare for and join continuous and committed countrywide struggles till all demands including “Karza Mukti – Poora Daam” – “Freedom from Indebtedness and Full Remunerative Price”- are fulfilled by the Government. Legally guaranteed MSP for all crops and freedom from indebtedness are the major demands the farmers have been fighting for since the rollout of neo-liberal policies that aggravated the agrarian crisis and peasant suicides,” the statement said.

“Since 1995, more than 4 lakh farmers have committed suicide in India and around 68% of the peasant households are indebted and in financial distress. These demands along with the demands of the repeal of three pro-corporate Farm Laws and the Electricity Bill 2020 led to the historic one-year-long farmers’ struggle at the Delhi borders since 26-27 November 2020 which was actively supported by all sections of the working people in India,” it further said.

The morcha has announced a plan of action to intensify the protests for the coming weeks with the focus on massive protest gatherings beginning from the village level and spreading across the country.

It will organise Fateh Diwas or Victory Day all over the country on 19 November 2022.

“It may be recalled that the Modi Government had to give in to the main demand of repeal of the three farm laws on 19 November 2021. In the face of sustained protests by farmers, it also gave a written assurance on 9 December 2021 to set up a committee on MSP law, with fair representation from SKM, and on other demands. It was on the basis of this assurance that the farmers returned home on 11 December 2021, suspending their historic struggle at the Delhi Borders in which more than 700 farmers were martyred. In this backdrop, SKM shall celebrate 19 November 2022, the first anniversary of the capitulation and declaration of withdrawal of the 3 Black Farm Laws by PM Modi, as Fateh Diwas or Victory Day,” it said.

Farmers will stage a protest march from December 1-11 to the offices of Lok Sabha and Raj Sabha MPs of all the political parties and also to leaders and MLAs of all State Assemblies and a call-to-action letter would also be submitted to all of them, demanding that they bring up the issue of farmers demands in Parliament/State Assemblies and force a debate and resolution of these issues, as per the SKM’s statement.

The next meeting of the SKM is scheduled on December 8, 2022, at Karnal in which the next phase of the movement will be decided and announced. (ANI)

Read More: http://13.232.95.176/

A Volunteer at Singhu Border Protest Site

‘Govt Had Laid A Trap, Farmers Walked Into It’

By LokMarg

Gurpreet Wasi, a volunteer at Singhu border protest site, recounts what happened a day ahead of the Tractor Rally and how the Machiavellian state led the farmers into a trap

I am an ordinary citizen of India. I have been on ground since the day farmers set up camps around Delhi in November 2020, as a Khalsa Aid volunteer. Lakhs of farmer camping in the bitter cold of Delhi is a humanitarian crisis. Getting up to help them was a natural reaction as well as a debt I owe to Punjab, the birthplace of my parents.

The Tractor March was a historic event, hitherto unseen in modern India. Around 2 lakh tractors, and 7-9 lakh famers, asserted their right to walk the national capital, mark the Republic Day, and renew our pledge to live by the Constitution of India. The Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, a joint front of 40 farmer unions, and police authorities had agreed upon a route and the parade was to begin around noon.

Wasi and her friends are in support of farmers protesting at Delhi borders

On the eve of the Parade, I went to Singhu border to distribute tricolor turban materials to make the march spectacular. My friends had helped me put together green, white and kesari turbans. I was there when a faction of people, who are not part of the Morcha, suddenly announced that they won’t follow the route decided between the authorities and the Morcha. Deep Sidhu, a known BJP mole, appeared on stage with the help of a group of Nihangs, with a provocative speech.

I returned a bit wrecked, a bulk of the turbans still in my car. I could not sleep a wink that night trying to estimate the impending danger of this adverse turn.

ALSO READ: ‘Red Fort Violence A Bid To Discredit Movement’

Deep Sidhu is a familiar name at the protest; farmers never trusted his intentions or his suddenly developed ‘Sikhi’. His affiliation with BJP was not hidden. Yet, over the months he had gathered a following of adrenalin-high youngsters.

I also received a message from a friend that a media insider had told her that ‘action would start early in the day’. True to her ‘insider tip’ a group of farmers (not part of Morcha) appeared on the borders at 8 AM as did empty DTC buses so that ‘public property’ could be damaged conveniently and captured on camera.

And before you know it, TV screens were awash with aggressive protesters entering the Red Fort. A religious flag (Nishan Sahib) was tied on a conveniently vacant pole to prove that the protesters are Khalistan supporters – a narrative this government has been trying to push from the beginning. The farmers had literally walked into a dangerous trap laid out for them.

The irony is that all 40 farmer unions started the Tractor Parade on the route agreed upon and at scheduled time. Along with a group of friends, I witnessed this peaceful parade for hours together. People of Delhi were showering flowers on them. But not a single TV channel covered this official tractor parade.

Social media anarchists had been in convulsions about the leniency of Delhi Police and Supreme Court in ‘allowing’ the parade. Now, we know that the soft gloves were hiding daggers underneath. The farmer’s historic parade went horribly wrong; they returned disappointed and bewildered, wondering if their 63 days of penance in Delhi was undone in a single masterstroke of the Machiavellian State.

There are questions that beg answers. Who gave access to Deep Sidhu into a fortress like Red Fort, that too on Republic Day? Who opened its locked Iron doors? Troops were seen falling off the walls of Red Fort like matchsticks. How did anyone so strategically place a camera on the adjacent side to catch the drama? Is this a Netflix soap?

Why were some tractors turned around at Nangloi and not allowed to move to Najafgarh as planned? Why did police barricade routes to Akshardam and Geeta Colony that had been approved for the parade? Was it to create confusion? Tell me who is the biggest beneficiary from this situation? You will have all the answers there.

Wasi (left) has a string of questions that point at a conspiracy

Do you think the farmers would throw away months of their sacrifice to a few moments of madness? How can it make sense to anyone but those who are without reason, without a shred of humanity? Don’t you see this is most dangerous conspiracy and machination to sabotage the Farmers’ protests?

This sordid dance of a failed democracy was amplified on the mouthpiece TV channels. I am sure all of us who stayed home watched it, some with glee and others with dismay and disgust.

Most of the farmers thought that most Indians were looking at their plight with sympathy and that India knows that they stayed non-violent. But at the end of the day when they returned to base, broken and badgered in body and spirit, ‘Dilli’ had painted them and the most generous community of India as goons and terrorists.

It’s a tragedy to witness simple, gullible farmers who travelled from faraway places like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab and Haryana who decorated their tractors to Delhi Roads to make their parade their voice, were made scapegoats on the altar of politics.

As told to Mamta Sharma