Chandigarh: Farmers’ unions leading the ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest since February 13 claimed that farmers from several states were being stopped from marching to Delhi in response to their call to reach Delhi by road and trains starting Wednesday (March 6).
Since farmers from Punjab are currently stuck at the Punjab-Haryana due to excessive police force, farmers from other states were asked to reach Delhi by any means possible to mount pressure on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government regarding their key demands, including legally guaranteed minimum support prices (MSP).
Sarwan Singh Pandher, convener of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee, which is leading the Delhi Chalo protest along with splinter groups of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (which played a key role in 2020-21 farmers’ protest), told the media that as many as 130 farmers were detained in Rajasthan, including 30 at the Sawai Madhopur railway station.
“We are unable to contact farmers coming from other parts of India [including] Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh as well as southern states. But we apprehend that they … may have been detained in these states as well,” said Pandher.
Many states that Pandher mentioned are BJP-ruled states which, according to Pandher, have increased surveillance on farmers marching towards Delhi.
Pandher also said that security has also been heightened inside Delhi, including at railway and bus stations as well as the Jantar Mantar site where farmers were supposed to gather.
“We will get to know the exact situation in couple of days,” Pandher said while targeting the Union government for using all means possible to end their protest.
He said that despite pressure, their call for the march to Delhi would remain as it is.
“We will not return unless farmers get a legal guarantee to MSP,” Pandher added.
SKM’s Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat on March 14 in Delhi
Meanwhile, the SKM, which is not officially part of the ongoing Delhi Chalo call, has been gearing up for its ‘Kisan Mazdoor Mahapanchayat’ (Hindi for ‘great council of farm labourers’) on March 14 in Delhi.
As per the SKM, the upcoming mahapanchayat will focus on all pending promises the BJP government made while taking back the three controversial farm laws in 2021.
The promises included fixing MSPs based on a formula that returns to a farmer the cost of producing a crop as well as a profit equalling 50% that amount, along with guaranteed procurement, which the SKM claimed was also promised in the BJP’s 2014 manifesto and originally recommended by the National Farmers Commission chaired by M.S. Swaminathan in 2006.
SKM member Darshan Pal said that the main debate on MSP is all about increasing the income of farmers and then rejuvenating the market through higher farmer growth, but the Union government is denying it.
The coming mahapanchayat where farmers would gather from across the country will help raising the issue and make it the centre-point of the coming Lok Sabha election, he added.
On whether the SKM will be allowed permission for the mahapanchayat, he said that while they have already applied for permission with the Delhi government as well as the home affairs ministry, he personally believed that the ministry may deny it permission given the BJP’s strong resistance to public protests.
“We’ll get to know the exact status in couple of days. In case we are not allowed to hold a mahapanchyat in Delhi, we will take a fresh call and decide a future course of action through a meeting before March 14,” he added.
The SKM has also strongly protested and condemned the BJP for fielding Ajay Mishra Teni from Uttar Pradesh’s Kheri Lok Sabha seat.
Teni is the father of Ashish Mishra Teni, who is the main accused in a 2021 incident where he along with others allegedly mowed to death four farmers protesting in Lakhimpur Kheri.
The SKM has also called the senior Teni a “chief conspirator” behind the incident.
