Farmers Movement Archive

Delhi: Farmers to hold ‘Kisan Parliament’ at Jantar Mantar from Thursday

NEW DELHI: Farmers’ union on Tuesday evening said they would hold a “Kisan Parliament” at Jantar Mantar during the ongoing monsoon session and every day from July 22, 200 protesters would go there from the Singhu border. After a meeting with Delhi Police officials earlier in the day, a farm union leader said they would hold peaceful demonstrations at Jantar Mantar demanding scrapping of the agri laws and no protester would go to the Parliament, where the monsoon session was under way. “We will hold 'Kisan Parliament' from July 22 till the monsoon session ends, and 200 protesters will go to Jantar Mantar every day. One speaker and one deputy speaker will be chosen each day. In the first two days, there will be discussion over the APMC Act. Later, the other bills will also be discussed every two days,” the leaders said. Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh national president Shiv Kumar Kakka said that farmers, wearing identification badges, would go to Jantar Mantar from the Singhu border to hold the protest. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of over 40 farmer unions spearheading the stir against the central farm laws, had planned that around 200 farmers would protest outside Parliament every day during the monsoon session, which started on Monday and is scheduled to conclude on August 13. “When police asked us to reduce the number of protesters, we told them to focus on the law-and-order situation and gave assurance that the protest will be peaceful,” Kakka said, adding that no written communication had been received from police yet. “We will sit at Jantar Mantar from 10am to 5pm. Nobody will go to Parliament and neither will we allow any political person to come to the protest,” he said. A tractor parade in Delhi on January 26, that was to highlight the demands of farmer unions to repeal three new agri laws, had dissolved into anarchy on the streets as thousands of protesters broke through barriers, fought with police, overturned vehicles and hoisted a religious flag from the ramparts of Red Fort. On Sunday, Delhi Police asked farmer unions to reduce the number of protesters, which was declined by the leaders. A day later, SKM accused Delhi Police of spreading misinformation by describing their protest as 'Sansad gherao'. SKM has already stated that there were no plans of laying siege to Parliament, and the protest would be peaceful and disciplined, it said in a statement.

The Times of India

2021-07-21

Delhi