Chandigarh, April 6 (IANS) Vowing to fight again to resume “morcha” for farmers’ rights, at right time, farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, 70, on Sunday announced to end his 132-day-long fast onto death, but said he would continue leading the protest over the demands of the farmers, including a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP) for crops.
Dallewal was, however, categorically clear in saying that the struggle to realise the legal right of minimum support price on crops as per C2+50 per cent would continue and for that “all need to come prepared, and for it, if needed be, they would again start the sit-in protest at appropriate time.”
The announcement to end the fast that started on November 26 last year was made by the convener of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) at a Kisan Mahapanchayat organised by the BKU (Sidhupur) in Sirhind town in Fatehgarh Sahib district of Punjab, where activists of Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) gathered in strength to rally support the ongoing protests.
Without mincing words, Dallewal, who reached the venue in a wheel-chair, said, “Even as I wanted to continue with the fast till all the 12 demands are met but as more and more demands were pouring in asking me to visit various states to mobilise farmers for national-level struggle for bigger issues concerning farming, going by those appeals and aiming to reach out farmers from across the country, I decided to accept those appeals”.
The demand for the MSP “will be achieved through a long struggle, and not in a day,” and it was imperative to provide economic independence to farmers, he said, adding, “Thousands have called me bapu (father). So, I have to work hard for my future generations.”
The development to end the fast came a day after Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan appealed to Dallewal to end his hunger strike.
“The series of discussions between representatives of the Government of India and farmer organisations regarding their demands is ongoing. Farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal has now returned from the hospital, and we wish him a speedy and complete recovery. At the same time, we request him to end his fast, as we will meet with the representatives of farmer organisations for discussions on the pre-scheduled date of May 4 at 11 a.m.,” Chouhan wrote on X.
Joining his colleague, Union Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu also appealed to Dallewal to end the hunger strike.
The last round of the talks, the third one, by the Central government with protesting farmers, mainly from Punjab, was held on March 19 here with Union Minister Chouhan, who reiterated the government’s commitment to the welfare of farmers. Chouhan had told the media that talks were held in a constructive manner and they will go on. The farmer leaders reiterated their long-pending demands, including a legal guarantee on the MSP for crops.
The government and the farmers had a constructive and cordial discussion lasting more than three hours, during which various legal, economic and other dimensions of the farmers’ demands were explored and highlighted, a statement had said.
Chouhan was joined by his Cabinet colleagues Pralhad Joshi and Piyush Goyal, while Punjab was represented by Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian. Farmer leaders, including Dallewal, were present.
Based on discussions in the last meeting, the government has decided to conduct stakeholder consultations with farmer organisations across the country, as well as with governments of states and union territories, and other stakeholders, including traders, exporters and the food processing industry. It has been decided to continue the talks in a positive spirit, after the stakeholder consultations.
However, the Union Ministers had assured the farmers that the government would continue to pay a patient ear to the concerns of farmers and other stakeholders and that it would act in the interest of farmers. “The interest of farmers is paramount,” the ministers had assured the farmers. They appealed to the farmer community to adopt the path of dialogue and talks rather than of protest, noting that solutions will emerge only from dialogue and discussion.
Soon after the conclusion of the third round of talks, farmer leaders, including Sarwan Singh Pandher and Dallewal, were detained and kept at different locations. Simultaneously, farmers who had been staging a sit-in protest for over a year and had raised temporary structures on two crucial borders linking Punjab with Haryana were forcibly evicted.
Justifying the government action, Punjab’s Finance Minister Harpal Cheema had said the step was necessitated for the economic growth of the state. “It is important that we fight against unemployment too,” he said.
–IANS
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