Farmers Call Off Parliament March, Vow To Continue Peaceful Stir

Farmer groups under the umbrella of Samyukta Kisan Morcha Wednesday resolved to continue their protest against the Centre’s new agri laws in a peaceful manner.

At an emergency meeting under the chairmanship of Balbir Singh Rajewal, the farmer groups while expressing appreciation to the struggling farmers for extending an unprecedented response to the Kisan Republic Day Parade, also condemned the “conspiracy” of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee and others which resulted in violence and death of a farmer during the tractor parade.

Also read: Family Of Man Accused For Hoisting Religious Flag At Red Fort Say 'He Is Innocent'

“The organisations resolved not to allow the government and other forces inimical to the peaceful movement to break this struggle. Yesterday's (January 26) events exposed and isolated the anti-farmer forces clearly,” the Samyukta Kisan Morcha said in a statement after the joint meeting of several farmer leaders.

The group, which represents hundreds of farmer organisations, appealed to the farmers to stay on at the protest venues and continue a peaceful struggle. Resolving the agitation for repeal of the three farm laws and mandatory remunerative minimum support price (MSP) for all crops, the farmers' organisations harshly condemned the government and its administration, as also anti-social groups “who tried to damage the peaceful farmers struggle”.

However, farmers are planning to observe Martyrs Day on January 30 with public meetings and hunger strike in villages across the country. Earlier plans for staging a march to Parliament on February 1, the budget day, has been dropped as farmers claimed that they are not keen to let anti-social elements misuse the opportunity to create mischief as witnessed on Republic Day. Farmers also alleged that there is a government and police conspiracy striving to give a violent turn to the agitation.

The meeting that lasted several hours, discussed the violent incidents in New Delhi and concluded that Union government has been severely shaken by this peasant agitation. “Therefore, a dirty conspiracy was hatched with them against the peaceful struggle of other farmer organizations, who had set up their own separate protest site after 15 days of beginning of this Farmers' agitation. They were not part of the organisations which jointly undertook the struggle”, the statement clarified.

The statement added that the anti-social groups had announced plans to march on Ring Road and unfurl a flag on the Red Fort. “As a corollary of conspiracy, the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee started marching on the Ring Road, two hours before the scheduled march of the struggling organisations. It was a deep-rooted conspiracy to knock down the peaceful and strong farmers' struggle,” according to the Samyukt Kisan Morcha statement.

Meanwhile, two farmer unions on Wednesday withdrew from the ongoing farmers’ agitation.

Talking to reporters, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Bhanu) president Thakur Bhanu Pratap Singh said he was deeply pained by the violent events that unfolded during the farmers’ Republic Day tractor parade in the national capital on Tuesday, adding that his union was ending its protest. The union was staging its protest against the Centre’s laws at a site near the Chilla border.

Meanwhile, terming the anarchic scenes witnessed at the Red Fort on Republic Day a “conspiracy to malign farmers and their peaceful protest against the three black farm laws”, the Congress party, on Wednesday, demanded the “immediate sacking” of Union home minister Amit Shah.

The Congress also alleged that the violence witnessed at the Red Fort was a “colossal intelligence failure for which the Union home minister is directly responsible”.