Elated by the trends in assembly election results which showed BJP set to lose in West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of agitating farmer unions, on Sunday said their campaign asking voters to “punish” the party stands vindicated. SKM members, who were seen distributing sweets to protestors camping at the Singhu Border, congratulated the people of West Bengal and other states for paying heed to their appeal.
Farmers protesting the three central farm laws had campaigned against the BJP in Assam, West Bengal, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
“Our campaign with state assembly voters asking them to punish BJP stands vindicated. BJP’s efforts not to make citizens’ livelihoods issues, such as the anti-farmer central agri laws and the anti-worker labour codes, as poll plank has clearly failed.
“We now appeal to farmers from all over India to strengthen their resistance and join the movement in greater numbers. This movement will continue to spread the democratic values that our Constitution espouses and will further strengthen itself till our demands are fulfilled,” read a statement from the SKM.
Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at three Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — for over four months, demanding a repeal of the three agri reform laws enacted by the Centre in September last year.
Clarifying that the ongoing farmers’ agitation won’t end until their demands are met, the farmers’ union said it is time that the BJP listens to people’s mandate in different states, which includes the sentiment of farmers, and immediately repeal the three agricultural laws and give legal guarantee to procurement at minimum support price.
“The government, instead of making peasants and workers their enemies, should fight against the corona pandemic and the livelihood and economic crises in the country,” it added.
The Centre says the new farm laws will free farmers from middlemen, giving them more options to sell their crops.
The protesting farmers, however, say the laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of MSP and do away with the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.
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