Farmers Movement Archive

Farmers’ unrest: Two back-to-back mahapanchayats in West UP in September

Three days before the Muzaffarnagar show of strength of farmers, a similar mahapanchayat will be held in Sambhal on September 2 and farmer leaders claim that these two congregations would showcase not just farmers’ solidarity but also lay the roadmap for 2022 assembly elections. Farmer leaders said efforts were on to make the Sambhal mahapanchayat being organised by Bharatiya Kisan Union’s ( BKU-Asli) national president Harpal Singh Bilari as well as the one by the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) led by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), in Muzaffarnagar on September 5, a grand success. “More than 50000 people will participate in the Sambhal mahapanchayat,” claimed Bilari. He said SKM leaders including Gurnam Singh Chadhuni, Rajpal and Yogendra Yadav will attend the mahapanchayat. “The mahapanchayat will help in deciding how to scale up the farmers movement in Uttar Pradesh”, he said. Bilari claimed that the farmers’ movement had been successful in both Haryana and Punjab. “This is quite evident as cases against 36000 farmers have been registered in Haryana and against 12000 in Punjab. UP has no such record which indicates that more direct involvement of people is needed to build up the movement across UP,” he said. “A resolution would be passed in the Sambhal mahapanchayat to prepare the blueprint for ‘Mission UP’ as part of which we would reach out to people to apprise them about issues that farmers are protesting against for past 9 months,” said BKU (Asli) leader Surendra Singh. He accused “mainstream media” of not showing real issues of farmers. “We would reach out to people to expose dirty play of the government to exploit farmers,” he said. Preparations are also on for the Muzaffarnagar mahapanchayat. BKU chief Naresh Tikait is meeting influential leaders like ‘khap heads and holding village level meetings to mobilise farmers and ensure maximum participation. “The mahapanchayat will strengthen the campaign against BJP in villages and it would also help clear how the three farm laws were against interest of farmers and why the legal status to MSP is essential for survival of farmers,” a farmer leader said.

Hindustan Times

29-08-2021

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