Protests Outside Parliament: Farmers From 22 States To Participate

FILE PHOTO: Farmers take part in a candlelit vigil, in memory of a person who died during a tractor rally on Republic Day, as protests against farm laws continue, at the Singhu Border near New Delhi

Farmers from 22 states will participate in protests planned outside Parliament from July 22 to demand scrapping of the contentious farm laws and ensure a legal guarantee on Minimum Support Price (MSP), the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) said on Thursday.

The umbrella body of over 40 farmer unions has planned that around 200 farmers will hold protests outside Parliament every day during the monsoon session. The leaders have not commented on whether they have permission to hold demonstrations outside Parliament but have maintained that the protests will be “peaceful”.

“The Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s call for Parliament March from July 22 till August 13 has received an overwhelming and enthusiastic response from across the country,” it said in a statement.

Besides Punjab and Haryana, a large number of farmers from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan will participate in the protest, SKM said

Special marches by women on July 26 and August 9 will also see huge participation from across India, including the northeastern states, it said.

“The Parliamentarians shall see farmers from all over India march in a disciplined manner to Parliament to place their demands and have their voices heard,” SKM said.

Extending their support to the farmers’ movement, Punjabi artists, including Gul Panag, Amitoj Mann and Babbu Mann, performed on Thursday for the protestors camping at the Singhu border, the statement said.

They also appealed to Indian citizens to extend their solidarity to the farmers’ movement.

“It is noteworthy that all sections of the country are coming out in support of the farmers and it is unfortunate that the Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unable to do justice to the farmers and stand with them,” the statement said.

Thousands of farmers from across the country have been agitating at the Delhi borders against the three farm laws that they claim will do away with the MSP system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.

Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws as major agricultural ‘reforms’, have failed to break the deadlock between the two parties. (PTI)