Farmers declare nation-wide protests on April 7, rail roko near Shambhu on April 9

Hyderabad: The farmer unions outside Delhi protesting against the Union Government for laws on minimum support price (MSP) for their crops, pension benefits and crop insurance, among other demands, have decided to take out processions across the country.

They have announced that on April 7 district-level demonstrations for their demands will be carried out in every state where effigies of the ruling BJP will be burnt. They have also called for blocking railway tracks on April 9 near the Shambhu border – the epicentre of the protests.

The protest call was announced by Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) on Tuesday attended by many prominent leaders at the forefront of the fight against the Union Government.

Demands to release jailed farmers

The farmer morchas have been going on since February 13 at the Shambhu, Khanauri, Dabwali and Ratanpura borders, outside Delhi.

The farmer leaders said that recently the government issued an order to eliminate many mandis and take the wheat crop directly to the silos, which was done last year. “This is equivalent to re-imposing the three agricultural laws from the back door,” the farmers said.

They also spoke about hundreds of farmers arrested in Haryana since February 10, out of which five farmer leaders are still in jail: Ravinder Singh (in Jind jail since February 13), Amarjeet Singh (in Jind jail since February 13), Anish Khatkar (in Jind Jail since March 19), Navdeep Singh and Gurkirat Singh (in Ambala Police custody since March 28).

Farmer leaders said that the electricity system is being deliberately disrupted at all the borders to harass the farmers, due to which the farmers are facing many problems. Both farmer forums decided that, to save the mandis, for the release of jailed farmers and proper arrangement of electricity on farmer fronts, massive processions will be taken out at the district level across the country on April 7 and effigies of BJP will be burnt.

“If the government does not accept these demands of the farmers even after that, then the railway track at Shambhu border will be blocked on April 9 and more railway networks might be targeted with similar protests later,” the farmers declared.

Nationwide tributes to farmer who died during protests

Farmer leaders listed the tribute meetings held for Shubhakaran Singh – a farmer who is said to have died from bullet injuries during the Dilli Chalo 2.0 protest – in Hisar, Haryana; in Hanumangarh, Rajasthan; and Ambala, Haryana. More will be organised on April 3 in Mysore, Karnataka and on April 11 in Orissa. A tribute meeting will also be organised in Uttar Pradesh.

On Tuesday, a delegation from the Shambhu border left for Chennai via Delhi carrying the ashes of Shubhakaran Singh. With verses from the Gurbani, Shubhkaran’s ashes were submerged in Ambala with around 1,500-2,000 people in attendance.

From there, this journey will be taken out by farmers organisations of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry.

The press conference on Tuesday announcing the protests at Kisan Bhawan in Chandigarh was attended by Jagjit Singh Dallewal, Sarwan Singh Pandher, Lakhwinder Singh Aulakh, Amarjeet Singh Mohri, Sukhjinder Singh Khosa, Baldev Singh Zira, Abhimanyu Kohar, Jaswinder Longowal, Sukhdev Singh Bhojraj, Manjeet Singh Rai and others.