New Delhi, Dec 13: Leaders of agitating farmer unions said they will hold a one-day hunger strike on Monday and protests will be held in all district headquarters to press their demand for the repeal of the new farm laws, as more protesters headed for Delhi with a large group blocking the key Delhi-Jaipur national highway when it was stopped by police on Haryana-Rajasthan border.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he too will observe a day-long fast on Monday and appealed to the central government “to shun ego and scrap the legislation”. Even as more farmers from Punjab and other states arrived near the Singhu and Tikri borders to join the sit-in which has been continuing for 18 days, Union Minister Kailash Choudhary said the government will soon decide a date for the next meeting and expressed confidence that the issues will be resolved this time. Addressing a press conference at the Singhu border, farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni said the leaders will observe the hunger strike at their respective places between 8 AM to 5 PM on Monday. “Also dharnas will be staged at all district headquarters across the country.
The protest will go on as usual,” he told reporters. A group of protesting farmers vacated carriageways on the Noida-Delhi Link Road via Chilla following a late-night meeting with Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Narendra Tomar, but Chaduni alleged that they were hand-in-glove with the government. “There are groups that are ending protest and saying they are in favour of laws passed by the government. We want to clarify that they are not associated with us. They have been hand-in-glove with the government, they conspired to sabotage our protest. The government is hatching a conspiracy to derail the ongoing farmers’ protest,” Chaduni alleged.
While the farmers have warned of intensifying the stir in coming days amid a deadlock in talks, several Union Ministers have repeatedly alleged that the farmers’ protests have been hijacked by Maoists, Leftists and anti-national elements, a charge denied by the union leaders spearheading the agitation. A political slugfest has
also erupted over the statements with the opposition, which has been supporting the stir, attacking the government, and the NCP said on Sunday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should clarify the claims of the Union ministers. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that stern action will be taken against “Tukde Tukde Gang”, a term used by the BJP to target political rivals whom it accuses of being anti-national.
Prasad, who is a Union Minister for Law and Justice, was speaking while launching Bihar BJPs state-wide “Kisan Chaupal Sammelan” (farmers conference) in support of the three agricultural Acts at Tekbigha village in Bakhtiarpur assembly constituency of Patna district. The government has been mulling ways to reach out to the farmers more effectively and on Sunday Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Minister Som Parkash, accompanied by BJP leaders from Punjab, met Home Minister Amit Shah. (PTI)
