Singhu Border, 25 July (Sangrami Lehar Bureao)- By tomorrow July 26th 2021, the farmers movement would have completed 8 full months of continuous protests at the borders of Delhi, India’s national capital. These eight months witnessed lakhs of farmers from almost all states of India joining the protests. The protests have been peaceful and reflect the centuries-old ethos of our anna daatas. They reflect their persistence and perseverance in the face of hardships, and the determination and hope that they possess for the future. Farmers faced bravely and undeterred various kinds of inclement weather and an adverse government through this period. An elected government which came to power mainly on farmers’ votes betrayed them horribly, and farmers were forced to assert their voices and demands in a patient, honest and peaceful manner. These protests have strengthened farmers’ unity and status in the country, and have deepened Indian democracy, said SKM. They have lent dignity to the identity of farmers, the joint forum stated.
Tomorrow’s Kisan Sansad at Jantar Mantar will be conducted entirely by women. The Mahila Kisan Sansad will reflect the key role that women play in Indian agriculture, and their critical role in the ongoing movement too. Convoys of women farmers from various districts are reaching the morchas for the Mahila Kisan Sansad.
SKM leaders will be going to Lucknow to launch Mission UP tomorrow. They will address a Press Conference organised there. As is known, Uttar Pradesh will be going into Assembly Elections next year. In the Panchayat elections held earlier this year, the farmers’ movement left its mark with BJP candidates punished in many places, and independents gaining most number of seats.
The Government of India’s repeated statements that it has no records of the deaths of farmers in the current agitation is quite shameful and SKM condemns this callous attitude of the Modi Government. Punjab government has put its official count of the number of deaths of Punjabi protestors at 220. SKM is not in a position to confirm this number either. However, if the Modi government does not want to look at the data maintained by the farmers’ movement that shows an unconscionable number of at least 540 deaths so far in the current struggle, the government should have at least looked at this official figure of a state government. The fact that it chooses not to, is a clear reflection of BJP’s anti-farmer attitude.
SKM condemns the cases filed on around 525 protestors by the Sirsa administration when they blocked traffic on Delhi-Dabwali Highway recently, demanding the release of five protestors wrongly arrested by the Police. We have senior judges also offering their comments that there is no case for sedition to be made out here against the protestors. While the five arrested farmers have been released, ironically, the Haryana government has now chosen to file cases against 525 farmers who were basically pointing out that the sedition charges were wrong and untenable! SKM demands that these cases be immediately withdrawn by the Haryana government. “It is apparent that the Haryana government has still not learnt any lessons from the wrongful detentions and cases that it indulged in, in Hisar, Tohana and Sirsa. These fresh cases being filed in indeed ludicrous and unacceptable”, said SKM.
Many new contingents of farmers are reaching different protest sites. A large tractor rally has reached Ghazipur Border today after having left from Bijnor yesterday. Further, to strengthen unity and harmony amongst farmers, there was a Kisan Mahapanchayat organised in Palwal Grain Market today.
In Punjab, BJP leader Balbhadhar Sein Duggal faced black flag protests of farmers in Phagwara yesterday. Similarly, BJP state unit President of Haryana, Om Prakash Dhankar faced protests in Badli in Haryana when he reached there to join a party meeting. Elsewhere in Haryana, in a Hisar village, BJP leader Sonali Phogat was met with black flags by protesting farmers who had gathered there yesterday. As already stated, Uttarakhand Chief Minister is also facing black flag protests, as has happened in Rudrapur one day earlier.