JANDIALA: Unimpressed with the government’s offer of tweaking the three agri-marketing laws, the farm unions plan to send more jathas to the Delhi border for giving impetus to the struggle.
Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee (KMSC) chief Satnam Singh Pannu told TOI on Wednesday: “The central government wants not to resolve the farmers’ issue, but create a rift between the agitating bodies. We won’t let anyone defame the agitation or divide us.” KMSC state general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher said all offers were meant to buy time, when farmers had made it clear they wouldn’t settle for anything less than scrapping of these laws.
He said the invitation for talks should have gone to all the farm unions of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have sat with them, since he alone had the authority to scrap the laws. Pandher said more than two dozen vehicles left for Delhi’s Kundli border every day and that 10 to 20 thousand farmers will join them on December 11 to build pressure on the Union government. “Large groups of farmers have entered Delhi,” he said.
Border Area Sangharsh Committee president Rattan Singh Randhawa said: “On Wednesday, 250 farmers left for Delhi by 12 vehicles. The Centre’s proposals are not acceptable to farmers. The government was trying to complicate the issue and create confusion.” On Tuesday night, the farmers had staged a sit-in at Daburji toll plaza with a ‘kirtan samagam’ and asked the passing motorists to support the protest.
AAP’s Seema Sodhi said, “Our women volunteers supply essential items to the women in protests on the Delhi border. So far, they have distributed 3,000 sanitary pads, and will continue to serve them throughout the protest.”
Dhindsa thanks Trudeau, UN secy gen Guterres
Shiromani Akali Dal (Democratic) president Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa “expressed his gratitude” to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau through a communique for “showing benevolence towards the sufferings of the Punjab farmers through his statements”. Dhindsa said the issue assumed greater significance as the leaders of the world community were supporting the cause of Indian farmers.
“Your voice in favour of the Punjab farmers would go a long way to strengthen people-to-people friendship between Indian farmers and Canadian farmers, notwithstanding the unnecessary discourteousness of the Government of India,” Dhindsa wrote in his letter. He added that he expected Trudeau to raise his voice wherever there was a suppression of human rights and human values as brutality against peaceful people had to be condemned by everybody. The Rajya Sabha member, in another communique, expressed his gratitude to the United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres too. Guterres had recently issued a statement through spokesman Stephane Dujarric advising the Government of India to allow farmers to demonstrate peacefully.