The protesting farmers on Sunday confirmed they would conduct a “kisan parade” in Delhi on Republic Day and invoked Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of peaceful protest, upset but outwardly unfazed by the government’s use of the National Investigation Agency to cut off support for them.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha condemned the “repression” by the government, which has got the NIA to file cases against those supporting the farmers by providing buses, organising langars or paying compensation to the kin of the dead.
Darshan Pal of the Krantikari Kisan Union, a constituent of the SKM, said the farmer unions would challenge the NIA action in court.
For weeks, tens of thousands of farmers have camped outside the nation’s capital, demanding the withdrawal of recently passed legislation. (Representative image)
NEW DELHI: Two of India’s richest men have landed in an unlikely controversy over farming laws, becoming targets of protesters who allege the tycoons have benefited from their close links to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
For weeks, tens of thousands of farmers have camped outside the nation’s capital, demanding the withdrawal of recently passed legislation they say, without evidence, was designed to allow billionaires such as Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani to enter farming. The tycoons say they have no such interest. More than 1,500 phone towers of Ambani’s wireless carrier were vandalized last month and some farmers called for a boycott of their businesses.
Two of India’s richest men have landed in an unlikely controversy over farming laws, becoming targets of protesters who allege the tycoons have benefited from their close links to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For weeks, tens of thousands of farmers have camped outside the nation’s capital, demanding the withdrawal of recently passed legislation they say, without evidence, was designed to allow billionaires such as Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani to enter farming. The tycoons say they have no such interest. More than 1,500 phone towers of Ambani’s wireless carrier were vandalised last month and some farmers called for a boycott of their businesses.
UPDATED: January 17, 2021 08:49 IST
New dawn: Farmers burn copies of the new farm laws while celebrating Lohri at the Ghazipur border protest site in Delhi (Photo: ANI)
As the national capital settled in for its coldest winter in the past 15 years, it did little to thaw the tensions between the government and the protesting farm unions. However, in a dramatic intervention on January 12, the Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramaniam suspended the implementation of the new farm laws and set up a four-member expert committee to hear the farm unions. But if they thought this would placate the agitating farmers, they were mistaken, as the farmers refused to appear before the expert committee, saying they would rather continue the dialogue with the Centre. They are also sticking to their demand of a complete rollback of the new Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection)