Farmers Movement Archive

Govt. talks to breakaway leaders as farmers hold hunger strikes

As several thousand farmers held hunger strikes and dharnas at Delhi’s border and across the country on Monday, demanding a repeal of the three recent agricultural marketing laws, the Centre continued to engage with individual elements in the farmers’ movement, in an effort to restart negotiations and broker a settlement. The national convener of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), one of the farmer groups leading the protest, was removed from his position after he expressed willingness to engage in separate talks with the government, focussing on demands for a minimum support price (MSP) law, rather than the repeal of all the three contentious laws. Kejriwal joins fast As the protest reached its 19th day, leaders of the movement held a day-long hunger strike from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal joined the fast in solidarity. Dharnas , or sit-ins, were held across the country, with people coming out in 60% of districts, according to estimates from the AIKSCC. About hundred farmers continued to hold a sit-in on the Haryana-Rajasthan border near Rewari, blocking traffic towards the capital on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway. The farmers, from Rajasthan and southern Haryana, heading to Delhi to join the protests, were stopped at the border by Haryana Police. On the Uttar Pradesh border, protesters aligned with the Bharatiya Kisan Union-Tikait temporarily blocked the highway at Ghazipur. “Farmers are being arrested, and their tractors and trolleys are being stopped. Farmers from Uttarakhand are also being held back in U.P. We will not tolerate this harassment,” BKU leader Rakesh Tikait told presspersons, threatening to completely seal the Ghazipur border. “State government should not interfere. Our fight is long, and our demands are with the Centre.” However, another farmer leader from U.P. and the national convener of the AIKSCC, V.M. Singh, said he was willing to drop the demand for a repeal of the laws if the Centre brought in a law to guarantee MSP for all farm produce, from both public and private buyers. “These three laws will automatically become infructuous if the MSP guarantee law is passed. That was always our original demand. [Other organisations] are now changing the goalposts,” he told The Hindu. Mr. Singh was evicted from his position as AIKSCC national convener on Sunday night for his stand.

The Hindu

2020-12-15

NEW DELHI