Farmers Movement Archive

Voices being suppressed, discontent simmering: RLD’s Jayant at mahapanchayat

Muzaffarnagar: At a well-attended mahapanchayat organised by Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) here on Thursday, the party's national vice president Jayant Chaudhary said the massive presence of farmers at the rally showed that people are against the “anti-farmer” policies of the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government.Though the ‘Loktantra Bachao’ (save democracy) mahapanchayat was not given permission by the district administration, the rally got direct support from other opposition parties as Congress leader Deepender Hooda, UP Congress vice-president Pankaj Malik, former MLA Imran Masood, Samajwadi Party leader Dharmendra Yadav, INLD leader from Haryana Abhay Chautala, and BKU national president Naresh Tikait also addressed the rally. Thousands of farmers, youths and heads of several khap panchayats were also in attendance.“There is simmering discontent and people want an avenue to express that. Hathras was a catalyst. The government is trying to suppress the opposition. The farmers want to agitate but they are being suppressed. We are sad for the incident that happened in Hathras and we will fight till the last breath to bring justice to the victim’s family,” Chaudhary later told TOI.The RLD leader announced another mahapanchayat in Mathura district on October 12 and asked the public to put up a similar show of strength there too.Police force from neighbouring districts, ten companies of PAC and the bomb squad were deployed in Muzaffarnagar to avoid any untoward incident.Additional district magistrate (enforcement) Amit Singh said, “Section 144 was imposed in the city and the permission to hold any such event was not given by the administration.”

The Times of India

2020-10-09

Meerut