Bathinda: In order to press for the remaining demands of the farmers, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of the farmers' unions has announced a tractor march across the country on the upcoming Republic Day on January 26 triggering fears of law and order situation witnessed on the occasion two years ago.
Sources said that a special meeting was held in Delhi by about 150 farmers' organizations from across the country under the banner of the United Farmers' Front and during this meeting, the remaining demands of the farmers' movement in Delhi were discussed. A strategy was made to press the Central government to fulfill the remaining demands before the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections.
The demands include dismissal of Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni over the involvement of his son Ashish Mishra in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which eight persons were mowed by vehicle allegedly carrying Ashish. Besides, the farmers' union has also demanded that the murder case framed against the farmers' leaders should be withdrawn besides adequate compensation to the victim families of the slain farmers.
The union also demands waiver of farm loans to farmers, pension to farmers above 60 years of age, power waiver for the year 2020 and ensure insurance of all agricultural crops. Referring to the violence during the farmers' tractor march on the Republic Day 2021 and the subsequent cases against farmers for the damage to public property during the violence, the farmers' union said that the Modi government “played the communal card and formed a conspiracy to break the struggle by making a bare-bones alliance with the communal forces outside the struggle”.
“The direct approach of the farmers' organizations was thwarted by force. Despite revoking the farm laws, the same plan and conspiracy have not been abandoned by the Modi government, but are being intensified anew in different forms. The government is not only trying to implement the agricultural laws in various forms but also trying to create communal divide and weaken the unity of farmers by supporting different communal forces in Punjab,” the union said in a statement.
It said that for now tractor marches will be held by farmers across the country on January 26, in view of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to press for the demands of the farmers. “For this to be done by the common people, the United Farmers' Front raised awareness on a large scale. With the right to vote, only the faces change, the system does not change. Today the system needs to be changed because changing the faces will not benefit the peasantry of the country,” it added.
Earlier, on January 26, 2023, a large-scale Maha Panchayat was held by the farmers' organizations of six states of North India to press for the demands of the Jind of Haryana and to fight on a platform to meet the demands of the farmers under the banner of the United Kisan Morcha. From 11 May to 18 May 2023, a nationwide demonstration was held by the United Kisan Morcha in Delhi in support of the Women's Wrestlers' Demonstration.
On 26 November 2023, Sanyukta Kisan Morcha non-political reached Chandigarh with 20,000 farmers and 3000 tractor trolleys and protested against the state government for its “refusal to accept the farmers' demands”.
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