NEW DELHI: Protesting farmers refused to play into centre’s tactics to clamp down their agitation. Blocked by police, hundreds of thousands of farmers have camped at borders 80 km from Delhi, insisting there would be no retreat this time until their demands are met.
At several places in Uttar Pradesh, police thrashed protesting farmers mercilessly. Also Uttarakhand farmers who arrived for passage to Delhi were blocked by the government there. In Haryana, after failure with erecting barricades, the authorities dug trenches along the road to prevent their advance.
At Delhi-Haryana border of Singhu where security forces stay put, All India Kissan Sabha President Dr Ashok Dhavale, general Secretary Hanan Mollah and Finance Secretary P Krishnaprasad toured the area and congratulated the protesters. At Buradi Nirankal maidan, Dr Sunil, Badal Saroj, Major Singh, Vikram Singh and Manoj Kumar addressed the protesters camped there.
Meanwhile, the joint protest committee dismissed centre’s propaganda that the movement was politically motivated. Beyond politics, the committee overseeing protests that began months now, comprises farmer organisation members from All India Sangharsh Coordination Committee, RK<S, BKU(Rajewal) and BJU(Chhaduni). Equally wrong is its claim that, the ongoing protests are basically Punjab-oriented agitation. That the police in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh are attempting to block protesters there, is ample proof against that lie. Odisha, Farmers are hold huge protests in states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Punjab, Bengal as well.
Protesters clarified there would be no compromise this time around, until the three anti-farmer laws enacted by Modi government and Electricity Bill are scrapped. The protest committee said, the central government’s offer to hold talks is devoid of honesty given that, it hails amendments as measures for farmers’ welfare. Only famers’ organisations from Punjab have been invited for dialogue on 3rd December.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said talks to resolve issues would be called the very next day after protesters shifted their agitation to venues designated by the government. He was responding to the wide demand that talks be held before 3rd December.
