Farmers Movement Archive

Amid propaganda and controversies, we will continue with peaceful protests, say farmer leaders on fast at UP Gate

The talk of certain farmer unions meeting the central government and lending support to the three new farm laws is just propaganda, said farmer leaders agitating at UP Gate in Ghaziabad.They said they would continue with their “dharna” to press for the roll back of the laws, which they claim are detrimental to their interests. Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) spokesperson Rakesh Tikait on Monday said, “We will continue to protest peacefully here. Certain groups meeting with government representatives is just a propaganda to weaken the farmers’ protest. We have already said that this protest is of farmers and we will not allow any outsiders to be a part of it.” “There have also been attempts to stop our people from joining protests here. It is on government’s instance that the borders are getting closed and getting opened,” he said further while referring to the opening of the Chilla border in Noida. On Sunday, a delegation of more than 100 farmers from Uttarakhand extended their support to the laws. Before that, a delegation of 29 farmers from Haryana met Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Saturday to extend their support and threatened to protest if the laws were repealed. Also, several pictures and videos emerged from the Tikri border with Delhi, another prominent protest site, in which a group of protesters were shown holding posters of intellectuals and activists in jail, accused in different cases. “This is also a part of propaganda to weaken our protest and create confusion,” said Tikait. Jagtar Singh Bajwa, a farmers’ leader from Uttarakhand, said that more farmers and their groups were coming to support the protest at UP Gate. “More farmers and groups from Uttarakhand, UP and other states are coming in and supporting us. Our December 12 and December 14 protest calls had been successful and further course of action will be decided by our core committee,” Bajwa, added. As of now, the farmers’ groups and the government have held about six talks among them but the deadlock over the three new farm laws has continued. On Monday, the farmers had given a call for protests at respective district headquarters and handing over memorandum of demand to respective district magistrates. A group of farmers including Tikait and Bajwa were among those who were on day-long fast at UP Gate along with others. They said that they were on fast from 8am to 5pm. The BKU and farmers from Uttarakhand, Punjab and UP have been staging protests at UP Gate since November 28 and have also blocked the Ghaziabad-Delhi carriageway of the National Highway-9 since December 3. On Monday, a group of protesters at the site jumped to the other, Delhi-Ghaziabad, carriageway and blocked it for about 10-15 minutes before they were called back. As a result, thousands of commuters were left stranded while trying to enter Ghaziabad. “The protesters blocked the Delhi-Ghaziabad carriageway for about 10-15 minutes but they went back and normal traffic was restored. It created long jam but we soon diverted the traffic coming from Ghazipur towards Kaushambi,” said Gyanendra Singh, superintendent of police (city 2).

Hindustan Times

14-12-2020

Noida