The protesters came together under the banner of All India Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (AIKS). Among them were about 40 children from Maharashtra — children of farmers who had committed suicide in recent years. (Representative Image)
The call for “kisan ekta” rang out loudly from Jantar Mantar where thousands of farmers, from across many Northern states and some Southern states, gathered to protest ‘anti-farmer policies’ on Tuesday. Among them were the 100 Tamil farmers, from the drought-ridden state, who landed in the capital earlier this week for a second round of protest.
Farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, with contingents big and small, arrived to show solidarity with farmers who had lost their lives recently. The protesters came together under the banner of All India Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan (AIKS). Among them were about 40 children from Maharashtra — children of farmers who had committed suicide in recent years. The children appealed to farmers to face hard times and not commit suicide — an act that impacts the entire family.
AIKS convenor VM Singh said that while the BJP’s call was for a “Congress-free India”, it was the farmers’ call for a “suicide-free India”. He addressed the gathering on how the ‘Kisan Mukti Yatra’ had come about, referring to the journey undertaken by a group of farmers, across various states, affected by farmer suicides. “For nearly 20 years, farmers have been committing suicide and it is time for all of us to come together in solidarity against it,” he said.
Swaraj India’s Yogendra Yadav, who was also present at the protest and is an AIKS coordinating committee member, said the event marked a historic shift in farmer protests in the country. “This shows a broader unity of the entire agrarian sector with presence of both the land owning sector and the landless,” he told The Indian Express.
At the rear end of the agitation were family members and friends of the six farmers who were recently killed in police firing in Mandsaur, MP. “Around 400 people came to Delhi together. We decided that we must be part of this significant protest,” said Mukesh Patidar, a farmer, who sat next to a banner with the faces of the deceased farmers. Further, the gathering, that also saw MP Raju Shetty, activist Medha Patkar and CPM leader Sitaram Yechury among others, demanded that the government fulfil its promise of fixing agricultural MSP at 50% above the production cost, and implement MS Swaminathan Committee’s recommendations.
