Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 16: Even as “ceasefire” by the agitating farmers continued on the inter-state boundaries with Haryana on Friday in anticipation of a successful meeting with the Central government representatives, farmers in huge numbers continued to camp at Shambu-Ambala and Khanauri-Jind order points on the fourth day of their “Delhi Chalo” agitation.
Commuters in Punjab faced inconvenience as buses stayed off the roads in response to the Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s call for a ‘Bharat Bandh’ to press the government to accept farmers’ demands, including a legal guarantee of MSP.
Markets and commercial establishments at several places in the state also remained shut while farmers held demonstrations at many places and blocked national highways in Pathankot, Tarn Taran, Bathinda and Jalandhar. In Haryana’s Hisar, the Haryana Roadways services were paralysed as its employees supported the ‘Bharat Bandh’ and stayed away from work.
Another round of meetings between farmer representatives and Union Ministers will be now held on Sunday after ‘positive’ discussions were held between Centre-farmers in the meeting concluded on the intervening night of Thursday-Friday. Sunday’s will be the fourth round of talks. The two sides met on February 8, 12 and 15 as well but those talks remained inconclusive.
Union Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Minister Arjun Munda, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai represented the Centre at Thursday’s meeting. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema also joined the meeting.
After the five-hour-long talks, Munda said, “We will find a solution by sitting together.” Mann said he raised with the Centre the issue of suspension of internet services in certain areas in Sangrur, Patiala and Fatehgarh Sahib, and that of Haryana security personnel using a drone to drop tear gas shells on protesters inside Punjab’s territory.
Haryana Police on Friday fired tear gas shells to disperse protesting farmers when they moved towards the barricades at the Shambhu border near Ambala, a day after talks between Union ministers and farmer leaders remained inconclusive.
The fresh confrontation comes on the fourth day of the farmers’ ‘Delhi Chalo’ march, called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, to press the government to accept their demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
Protests were held in parts of western Uttar Pradesh on Friday to mark the ‘Bharat Bandh’ call given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha. “We are holding the protest for the demands, including implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report, loan waiver etc,” Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait told reporters.
On being asked if he has any plans to go to Delhi, Tikait said, “A meeting is scheduled in Sisauli (Muzaffaranagar) on Saturday, where planning for the future course of action will be made.” Tikait participated in the protest held at the Bagovali crossing on the Delhi-Dehradun National Highway. BKU supporters staged protests at ten places in the district.
The Jammu and Kashmir unit of CITU and the Kisan Tehrik led by senior CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami on Friday held a protest in Jammu in support of the farmers who have hit the streets. Tarigami, who is also the president of J&K unit of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said the protest was organized in support of the nationwide strike called by Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) along with central trade unions and federations.
Amid chants of anti-government, pro-farmer and pro-worker slogans, the protesters assembled outside the Maharaja Hari Singh Park and held a peaceful protest. However, they were not allowed to take out a rally by policemen who were deployed in strength. The J and K police detained 50 trade union leaders and activists who were planning to hold a protest at Lal Chowk here in support of the demands of agitating farmers. The leaders and activists were detained by police near Pratap Park on Residency Road as they were assembling for protests and taken to Kothibagh police station, officials said.
The Congress on Friday condemned the police action on farmers protesting at Shambhu border and urged the government to fulfil its promises made to them on providing legal guarantee to minimum support price on crops and other demands.
The party also hit out at the Haryana government, alleging it was creating impediments and committing brutality on peaceful farmers wanting to proceed to Delhi to remind the government of its promise. Chairman of the All India Kisan Congress Sukhpal Singh Khaira said at a press conference that the Centre should consider their legitimate demands.
The Congress on Friday said questions should be asked of the BJP-led government as to why it did not provide legal guarantee of MSP in its 10 year tenure, while claiming that the UPA dispensation under Manmohan Singh had acted on the Swaminathan Commission report and created a consensus on the issue.
“(Then) PM Manmohan Singh acted on it (Swaminathan committee report). It was debated in Parliament and talks were held with states twice. Agriculture is under states ambit but still we had taken a decision that we will move in that direction. We had big legislations before us such as on food security and land acquisition. We had decided that we will come back and adopt the Swaminanthan formula,” Ramesh said at a press conference in Bihar’s Kaimur during the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra.
Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Friday wondered how Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann would respond to the farmer’s agitation when the AAP had once demanded that the state governments pick up the tab for giving the minimum support price (MSP).
Talking to reporters here, Thakur said the next round of talks with the agitating farmers scheduled to be held on Sunday will be cordial and the farmers would not resort to violence and vandalism. He reminded the AAP leadership that they wanted the state government to make payments towards MSP when the Congress was in power at the Centre.
“When there was a Congress government at the Centre, Arvind Kejriwal used to demand that the Punjab government make MSP payouts to the farmers. Bhagwant Mann also used to raise a lot of questions. Now, Mann is the chief minister. Will he respond to this (Kejriwal’s) demand?” the senior BJP leader asked.
