Farmers Movement Archive

200 days on, tide ebbs on farmers’ protest

Bathinda: As the protest against the contentious farm laws at the borders of Delhi completed 200 days, many sections are wary about the outcome of the struggle. Despite activity ebbing, protesters say they are determined to take the struggle to its logical end by making the Central government repeal the farm laws. However, the past 100 days have been rather subdued as compared to the first 100 days. The only solace for protesters is BJP losing assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Farmers had campaigned against BJP in Bengal and decided to do so in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where assembly elections are due early next year. Mobilisation on the ground also slowed down considerably over the last 100 days. The primary reason for this is perceived to be the incidents at Red Fort on January 26. Many sections feel that this delivered a major blow to the movement. In the wake of the tractor parade, farm leaders first deferred and eventually cancelled the foot march to Parliament. Also, farmers did not get a response from the Union government to their letter to Prime Minister asking for resumption of dialogue. Inside sources said the letter itself came in for criticism within the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha as a few farm organisations raised questions on the authority of nine leaders writing to the PM. This was in stark contrast to the incidents of the first 100 days when 11 rounds of talks were held between farmers and central ministers. Many programmers lined up in the first hundred days were restricted later. On the brighter side, participation in the protest in the initial days was generally restricted to farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh but later, farmers from Telangana, Uttarakhand and a few other places also participated. “Despite the farmers facing many hardships while sitting on the roads as the Central government continues to ignore their key demands, protesting farmers are getting more and more determined and resolute in their peaceful struggle. They have faced bone-chilling cold, storms, scorching summer and now, rain. Despite the paddy sowing season, farmers are coming to the borders. They are ready to be drenched in rain and staying in flooded tents,” said the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha leaders. Farm leader Jagmohan Singh said, “Surely some impact was felt over the happenings on Republic Day, but the protest overcame that and had to take some hard steps in keeping aside some forces in the protest with some agenda other than repeal of farm laws. There was less vibrancy due to second wave of Covid turning lethal, wheat harvesting season and now paddy transplantation but despite all this, farmers continued coming from far more places like Uttarakhand, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and even from Maharashtra, Karnataka to some extent.”

The Times of India

2021-06-15

Chandigarh