Kuldip Bhatia
Our Correspondent
Jagraon, February 11
Complete unity among various farmer unions and their cadres was at display at the kisan mahapanchayat that got under way at Grain Market here on Thursday.
Farmers and people from many other walks of life thronged the mandi ground with their vehicles — tractor trollies, cars. SUVs, buses and trucks — parked wherever a vacant space was available around the venue.
The proceedings of the mahapanchayat were delayed by more than an hour owing to bad weather and late arrival of leaders. Samyukta Kisan Morcha leaders Surat Singh Dharamkot, Kulwant Singh Sandhu, Manjit Dhaner, Nirbhai Singh Dhudike and Harinder Singh Lakhowal were present.
The rally attracted an estimated gathering of 25,000 to 30,000 people.
Speaking at the mahapanchayat, SKM leaders Manjit Dhaner (BKU-Ekta Dakaunda), Kulwant Singh Sandhu (Jamhoori Kisan Sabha) and Harinder Singh Lakhowal (BKU-Lakhowal) vowed to fight the Modi government till it reaches a definitive conclusion on the issue of farm laws.
Manjit Dhaner said BKU’s Rakesh Tikait had given a new lease of life to the struggle.
He said: “It is no longer a fight of only farmers but has now become a mass agitation. In the ongoing agitation, 99 per cent of people are standing by farmers but unfortunately, Prime Minister Narndra Modi has chosen to side with corporate houses.”
Lakhowal said the Centre’s claim that doors were open for dialogue on farm acts was a white lie because all doors had been slammed shut in the form of barricades erected on borders, with nails and iron rods fixed on roads, and denial of basic amenities to protesters.
“Farmers are prepared to shed their last drop of blood to safeguard their lands and their rights to remunerative prices,” Dhaner added.
BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan exhorted farmers and people to be prepared for a long-drawn struggle because “the fight is not merely against Modi or the NDA government”.
“The real culprits for these new economic policies are the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the IMF and the Word Bank, who were out to snatch the bread from the mouths of the hungry people and turn the farmers into paupers,” Ugrahan said.
He said if the three farm acts were implemented, more than 80 per cent farmers — especially those with small holdings — would lose their land to the corporate and big business houses.
SKM leaders also cautioned people and protesting farmers against nefarious attempts by all political leaders to hijack the farmers’ agitation for their own political interests.
“The struggle has not been launched by any political party but by farmers, farm workers and the common people for their survival, and to stop the onslaught by corporates and big business,” they asserted.
Kisan mahapanchayat commences in Punjab's Jagraon; leaders say agitation no longer a fight of only farmers
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