New Delhi: Ahead of a decision by protesting farmer unions in Delhi on the Centre’s offer for fresh talks, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday inaugurated anti-farm laws agitation at a protest venue in Thiruvananthapuram.
“Our country has witnessed many historic protests, of which main protests were organised by farmers. Even in Kerala, many such protests have taken place. One of the strongest farmers protests is going on in India right now. Farmers are annadata and the present government at the centre is not respecting them,” CM Vijayan said at the protest site.
He lambasted the BJP for remembering Swaminathan report – the only agricultural report the farmers have referred to in their agitation – while campaigning for Lok Sabha polls but forgetting it at the time of implementation.
Kerala’s opposition, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) had taken out a march to the state’s Raj Bhavan yesterday expressing solidarity with the protesting farmers. Meanwhile, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan declined approval for a special session of the state assembly on Wednesday proposed by the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front to pass a resolution against the three contentious central agriculture laws.
Meanwhile, thousands of farmers have been relentlessly protesting at Delhi borders for four weeks. Farmer unions camping at UP Gate on Delhi-Ghaziabad border on Tuesday blocked all 14 lanes of the National Highway 9 for eight hours from 9 AM and also allegedly manhandled a journalist and photographer.
Another group of protesters showed black flags to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and even tried to block his convoy in Ambala City, as demonstrations were held in several states in support of the thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, who are on a sit-in since November 26 on the borders of the national capital demanding the repeal of the three laws.