Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers begin a sit-in at Sirsa after talks fail

Rohtak: Scores of farmers attended the ‘mahapanchayat’ in Sirsa on Saturday, demanding the release of five members of their community, who were arrested under sedition charges for allegedly attacking Haryana assembly’s deputy speaker Ranbir Gangwa on July 11.According to the police, the entire Sirsa was converted into a cantonment with heavy deployment of Haryana Police personnel and paramilitary forces to stop farmers from breaking law and order while the local administration had imposed Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to prohibit the assembly of four or more people in an area.Police had barricaded loads leading to Shahid Bhagat Stadium, but farmers managed to reach the mahapanchayat venue by removing barricades.Addressing the mahapanchayat and reacting on sedition charges slapped against more than 100 farmers, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said the Supreme court has questioned the relevance of sedition law, describing it as ‘colonial’, but the Haryana government has imposed the ‘colonial law’ on farmers to stop the dissent.Attacking the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government over the three farm laws, Tikait alleged that the Centre was being run by “corporate companies”.“Some BJP workers have the misconception that their party is in power at the Centre. The Modi government is being run by big corporate companies and that’s why the government has failed to hold dialogue with farmers protesting against three farm laws. If any other party had been in power, they would have held a meeting with farmers to end the deadlock,” Tikait added.“We will hold a mahapanchayat in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on September 5 to launch a mission against the BJP in UP, Uttarakhand and Punjab, where assembly polls are due,” he said.Earlier in the day, a 20-member committee of farmers met Sirsa administration officials to discuss the release of arrested farmers. However, the talks could not reach a logical conclusion, Tikait told reporters.The farmers have decided to stage an indefinite sit-in in front of the mini-secretariat to protest the arrests and slapping of the sedition cases, Tikait said, adding that a 20-member delegation of farmers met officials for over two hours over the issue. While the district administration maintained that action against arrested will be taken by the court, the delegation sought the withdrawal of the sedition charge.Meanwhile, Haryana home minister Anil Vij said, “The country’s law is supreme, and that law does not function on anyone’s advice, be it a politician like me.” He said the law functions at its own pace and in its own ways, and such activities have no effect on the legal procedures.Meanwhile, former Leader of the Opposition and INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala objected to the use of the sedition law by the state’s BJP-JJP government. “It is a law of British times. The British had made this law so that any Satyagrahi could be imprisoned by accusing him of rebellion or terror,” he said.Protesting farmers have been opposing public functions of the BJP and the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in the state.Farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at Delhi’s borders for over seven months in protest against the Centre’s three agriculture laws.With PTI inputs

Hindustan Times

18-07-2021

India