Farmers Movement Archive

No Haryana farmers participated in Delhi Chalo protests: CM

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday said that Haryana farmers had not participated in the Dilli Chalo protest against the farm laws, alleging that the farmers’ stir was a conspiracy of other political parties and organisations in Punjab, which is ruled by the Congress. The chief minister, who addressed the media in the city, even hit out at Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh for avoiding talks with him in the last three days. “The movement was started by farmers of Punjab. There is some connection with certain political parties and unions. Farmers of Haryana did not participate in this agitation of marching to Delhi,” said Khattar, who was in the city on Saturday to address the grievance redressal meeting. “Haryana police during the agitation exercised complete restraint and did not use any force. They only tried to stop them from going to Delhi in such a large number,” he said during the press briefing.The two chief ministers — Bharatiya Janata Party’s Khattar and Congress’ Singh — have indulged in a war of words on Twitter since the beginning of the farmers agitation on November 26. Khattar accused Singh of inciting farmers and running away from talks. In response to that, Singh took potshots at the Haryana CM saying he should have tried to talk to the farmers before the protest began. The issue snowballed after farmers from Punjab and Haryana were stopped from entering Delhi through the Delhi-Haryana border, especially Jhajjar and Sonepat on Friday.“Going in large numbers to Delhi is of no use. Instead Punjab farmers should send their 10-15 representatives to talk to the Central government in this matter as negotiation is the only solution,” said Khattar.The protest by farmers is against the three farm laws passed in the parliament in the monsoon session — The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020. Farmers want the new laws to be repealed and demand minimum support price (MSP) for all agricultural produce to continue. Khattar said that the Punjab government was playing politics in the matter and said that officials from Punjab CM’s office were seen leading the agitation and were at the forefront. Referring to his tweets made in the last two days, he said, “It is an abnormal situation as for the first time in six years a chief minister is trying to talk to another chief minister and is being avoided. I tried to talk to my counterpart in Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, several times during the last three days but he avoided taking my calls. I dialled him two to three times, and thereafter several calls were made from our exchange, but every time the chief minister’s staff told us that he is busy and will connect with us in a short while.”Slamming Khattar, Punjab chief minister Singh called the allegation baseless and demanded an apology. He said, over 50,000 farmers from Haryana joined the march, as per the Punjab intelligence and Centre’s intelligence report. In a press statement issued by the Punjab government based on interviews given to the media, Singh said, “Khattar is lying that he tried calling me earlier and I did not respond. But now, after what he has done to my farmers, I will not speak to him unless he apologises and admits that he did wrong with Punjab’s farmers.”

Hindustan Times

28-11-2020

Gurugram