Farmers Movement Archive

Kisan Sansad at Jantar Mantar: Farm laws face censure

NEW DELHI: The Kisan Sansad, the protesting farmers’ sit-in at Jantar Mantar, began on Thursday with a two-minute silence in memory of those who lost their lives during the eight-month-long agitation. Six leaders were nominated the ‘speaker’ and ‘deputy speakers’ of the session, while others sat as members of the farmers’ parliament to discuss the three farm laws they are campaigning to have repealed, among them the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Bypass Act, 2020. Their sirens blaring, police escorts and a pilot car led two buses filled with the protestors to the Kisan Sansad site at 12.10pm. Another arrived at 12.26pm and the last at 12:38pm. The ‘parliamentary session’ was to have started earlier, but the 200 farmers permitted to participate daily at Jantar Mantar alleged they were delayed by the cops. “It was only after raising slogans to protest the 45-minute delay that we were able to reach Jantar Mantar,” said Raminder Singh Patiala, member of the legal cell of Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of farmers’ unions. “Our Kisan Sansad will run concurrently with the Indian Parliament’s monsoon session till August 13.” Initially there was confusion with regard to the media's entry to the barricaded area, but the cops allowed them in soon after the farmers passed a resolution to have the media at the sit-in. Amid all this, Covid norms, such as wearing masks and keeping a distance from each other, were routinely flouted. During the session, the farmers passed a ‘ninda prastav’ to condemn the statement of Union minister Meenkashi Lekhi. “She described farmers as mawalis (hooligans) and insulted India’s farmers,” alleged Raminder Singh Patiala. Lekhi later responded to the criticism and said, “My statement has been misinterpreted. If I have hurt any sentiments, I take back my words.” Forty-five speakers gave their opinion on the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020. As the farmers will discuss this law on Friday too, no final resolution was passed against the Act on Thursday. Some MPs visited the protest site but were told to be the farmers’ voice inside Parliament and that no stage or talk time would be shared with them. Sukhwinder Singh said this was the first time that a parliament of farmers was in session simultaneously with the Indian Parliament, just 2km away from the protest site. “We have been agitating for eight months and these barricades won’t stop the people from learning about the Kisan Sansad,” the joint secretary of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Samiti, Punjab, said. “It’s the people who make the government and if we, the people, are not happy with it, then it has to do something about it.” Alongside those who had come from the Ghazipur, Tikri and Singhu border protest sites were farmers from other states. Swaraj India chief Yogendra Yadav said farmers from more states would come to the capital to take part in the Sansad. K T Gangadhar, who was among the 20 farmers from Karnataka who participated in the day’s proceedings, said, “We are against the privatisation of mandis, contract farming and the amendments in the Essential Commodities Act.” He added that every week, around 200 farmers from Karnataka would sit in protest at Ghazipur border. Benoy Thomas of Vellad village in Kerala’s Kannur district was among the 13 farmers from Kerala who arrived in the city on Thursday. Thomas said, “I am a lawyer, but I cultivate two acres in my village. According to the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, any person can now store agricultural produce without limit. This will lead to hoarding and during wars or pandemics, the government may not be able to provide food grain to the poor.” Joy Kannanchira added that farmers had been protesting against the farm bills across Kerala. Six farmers from Maharashtra have been sitting at Singhu border since July 18. Shankar Darekar, a native of Nashik, said at Jantar Mantar that contract farming of grapes had been taking place in Maharashtra for around 20 years, but the farmers were often cheated. “Though we harvested the crop in February, we have only received partial payment so far,” Darekar claimed. “Every year, around 20% of buyers disappear without paying the farmers in full. But the new laws have reduced jail terms for such unscrupulous traders from seven years to three years and the cases will only be heard in the sub-divisional magistrate’s court.”

The Times of India

2021-07-23

Delhi