Women are part of the farmers camping outside Delhi’s borders and want the government must heed the farmers and not behave like a bully
Aman Zutshi
SHAMBHU BORDER: Thousands of farmers continue to camp at the Punjab-Haryana border after the decision to temporarily halt their march to Delhi following the killing of a 21-year-old farmer, Shubhkaran Singh, in police action on Khanauri border. Police resorted to use of heavy teargas shells, rubber bullets and pellets to stall the march.
“We will wait and go when the roads open but we will not go back without our demands being met,” many ordinary farmers that are part of the movement said. Many expressed their anger at the way the roads to Delhi have been sealed and the brutal action on their march.
Thousands of farmers are staying put at Khanauri and Shambhu after police stopped their march to Delhi to press the Centre for various demands, including a legal guarantee of minimum support price (MSP) for crops, implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and “justice” for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation to the families of the farmers who died during a previous agitation in 2020-21 among other demands.
A farmer at the Shambhu border told the Kashmir Times that MSP demand was justified and imperative for the survival of the farmers. He was dismissive of the way a war zone has been created at the Delhi borders to repress the farmers and dismissed the myth that this was only a protest of farmers from Punjab and Haryana.
“Farmers from other states have been stopped forcibly in the BJP ruled states,” he claimed.
Women are part of the farmers camping outside Delhi’s borders. An angry woman, Paramjit, hailing from a farmer’s family of Haryana said that the government must heed the farmers and not behave like a bully.
She said, “on the one hand, they talk about women equality and promoting women’s rights, on the other they are killing the sons of women for merely protesting.” This, she said, does not augur well for the country.
She asked the government why it feared talking to the farmers who are reeling under distress.
Joining the farmers in protest are several supporters. One among them was Mehrunissa, who said she had campaigned earlier during Shaheen Bagh movement and the previous farmer’s movement.
Mehrunissa explained why MSP, which was recommended by Swaminathan report, was necessary for farmers and why she feels the need to support the farmers whom she called the “pride of the country”.
—–
Have you liked the news article?