On the second day of protest at Khanauri site, farmers on Monday announced that they will organise district-level rallies across the country on August 20, where they will inform the public about how the government stopped 51 farmers from protesting in Delhi.
The proposed 228-km “Kisan Bachao Padyatra” by farmers associated with the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) was halted at the Khanauri-Data Singhwala border on Sunday after Haryana authorities stopped a 51-member group from entering the state and sealed the interstate route.
The farmers, led by SKM (Non-Political) convener Jagjit Singh Dallewal, subsequently decided to continue their agitation from the Punjab side of the border rather than attempt to cross into Haryana.
The march was scheduled to begin from Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana border on August 16 and reach Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on August 29, where the farmers had planned to hold a farmers’ panchayat. The group had set out from a gurdwara at Khanauri under Dallewal’s leadership.
The farmers’ main demands include exclusion of agriculture, dairy, poultry and fisheries from any proposed India-US trade agreement, a legal guarantee for procurement of all crops at minimum support price (MSP) based on the Swaminathan Commission’s C2+50% formula, farm loan waiver, higher sugarcane fair and remunerative price (FRP) and withdrawal of cases registered against farmers during previous agitations.
The SKM (Non-Political) has said it is particularly opposed to the proposed India-US agricultural trade agreement, apprehending that it could adversely affect farmers and the domestic agricultural sector.
On Monday, a meeting was held between representatives of various farmer unions, including Jagjit Singh Dallewal of BKU Sidhupur; Kaka Singh Kotra, state general secretary of BKU Sidhupur, and other representatives from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and administrative officials from Sangrur and Patiala, including SDM- and DSP-rank officers.
Moonak deputy superintendent of police Rajesh Sanehi said during the meeting, officials listened to the key demands of the farmers and gathered information regarding their march routes, gathering number, etc.
Later in the evening, Dallewal addressed a press conference and said on August 20, farmers across the country would ask the Government of India why they were not being allowed to walk on foot inside the capital of their own country.
Dallewal said the farmers had planned to send only a limited group of 51 people. They would march on foot without tractors or trolleys so that neither the public nor the government faced any inconvenience. He said the government allowed a maximum of 500 people at Jantar Mantar. Despite this, the government stopped them using concrete barricades.
“Our Prime Minister has visited Punjab and Haryana multiple times, but farmers are never allowed to meet him. Where should the public meet the Prime Minister? People do not get an opportunity to share their grievances. That is why we planned this march,” he said.
Regarding talks offered by the Haryana government, Dallewal said, “Is Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini capable of stopping the US trade deal, making MSP a guaranteed law, implementing the Swaminathan report and other central demands? These powers do not lie with him; they are with the central government. Therefore, we want to hold talks with Union ministers.”
