As their “Delhi Chalo” march, organised by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, entered Day 6, farmers from Punjab, Haryana, and other regions of North India persisted in their demonstrations on Sunday. In anticipation of their fourth session of talks with the Centre on Sunday, the striking farmers have requested an ordinance guaranteeing the Minimum Support Price (MSP), one of their main demands.
For the fourth round of talks aimed at ending the ongoing farmers’ protest, Union Ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal, and Nityanand Rai will meet with farmer representatives in Chandigarh. The preceding meetings between the two parties on February 8, 12, and 15 ended without a resolution.
In a situation of extensive blocking at the Haryana-Punjab border and entrance points into the National Capital, farmers from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh started their “Delhi Chalo” march on February 13 morning in an effort to demand their demands. On Punjab’s border with Haryana, at the Shambhu and Khanauri posts, security guards halted the majority of them. Since then, the demonstrators have remained at the two border crossings.
In an effort to pressure the Centre to grant their demands, more than 200 farmers’ unions, including the Samyukta Kisan Morcha and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, are participating in the march.
In addition to a legal guarantee of MSP, the farmers are demanding the following: the reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, waivers of farm debt, police cases against them being dropped, “justice” for the victims of the violence in Lakhimpur Kheri in 2021, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, and compensation for the families of farmers who lost their lives during an earlier agitation in 2020–21.
Here are the most recent updates about the ongoing protests by farmers.
- One of the main demands of the farmers who are now camped at the Shambhu and Khanauri points of the Punjab-Haryana border is that the Centre bring an ordinance granting a legal guarantee to MSP. This was made by farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher on Saturday.
- In response to the farmers’ agitation, the Haryana government on Saturday extended the ban on bulk SMS services and mobile internet in seven districts by an additional two days, till February 19. Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad, and Sirsa are the districts that are impacted. On February 13 and 15, the administration had already extended the ban on mobile internet.
- Shatrujeet Kapur, the head of Haryana Police, promised strict action against anyone who disrupt law and order after touring the Data Singhwala-Khanauri border post, where farmers have been camped out since security officers interrupted their “Delhi Chalo” march. In order to assess the situation and provide the appropriate guidance, Kapur met with police officers and other authorities at the Data Singhwala-Khanauri border post.
- Rakesh Tikait, the head of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), declared on Saturday that farmers will hold dharnas across Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh on February 21 in order to protest their demands, which include a formal guarantee of MSP. After visiting a panchayat in Sisauli, Tikait spoke to media. He claimed that a resolution was approved during the meeting requesting that, in the event that the government rejects farmers’ requests, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) organise a tractor march to Delhi during the last week of February.
- While BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) staged dharnas outside the homes of three top BJP politicians in solidarity of farmers demonstrating at the borders of Punjab over their different demands, the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Charuni) conducted a tractor march in Haryana.
- When about one hundred farmers from various farmers groups attempted to hold a “rail roko” protest in front of the Cholan Express on Saturday, they were detained at the Thanjavur Railway station. The organisation was opposing the police response to the New Delhi farmers’ protests.
