On the 26th of October, farmers of Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana, expressed their anger by burning effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
On the occasion of Dussehra, farmers who are still protesting against the three farm bills burnt effigy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
On the 27th of September, Ram Nath Kovind, the President of India passed the three farm bills, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020.
According to the passed bills, the Minimum Support Price (MSP,) area of trading would be under the purview of the Indian Government
The reason behind the farmers protest is their fear of being at the mercy of corporates or zamindars for crop prices. The new bills would also demolish the Minimum Support Price (MSP) advantages for farmers.
However, the Central Government assured the MSP system will continue unchanged and the new bills will result in higher profits for the farmers.
The three controversial farmers bills were passed in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha first, following which the farmers of Haryana and Punjab called for a protest.
On Ravan Dahan, massive protests broke out in Patiala, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Fazilka, Faridkot, Ludhiana, Moga, Jalandhar, Muktsar and other districts.
Villagers along with the farmers of these districts set ablaze 20-30-foot-tall effigies of Modi and the corporate men like Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adnani and others.
They symbolically compared them to modern day Ravana due to the farm bills, which would be a huge set back for farmers in India.
In Punjab, protests continued in over 50 cities and towns and 14 districts by BKU Ekta Ugrahan. Activists, including farmers, women, children, youths, elderly, labourers, artists and writers, participated in the effigy-burning processions across the Malwa districts in Punjab in huge numbers.
BKU Ekta Ugrahan State general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan said, “Effigies of Modi and the corporates were burnt as a symbolic protest against the Central government. With the participation of people from different backgrounds and professions in Sunday’s protest, the entire Punjabi society stood united with the farmers in their fight against the Centre.”
Leaders of BKU Ekta Ugrahan said, “BJP leaders are playing dirty politics on the issue, and the latest example is the statement of BJP president JP Nadda in which he purportedly termed protesting farmers as ‘middlemen.'”
Meanwhile, a national level meeting of farmers is scheduled to be held on the 27th of October.
The meeting would be attended by 30 farm organisations of Punjab under the umbrella of Sanjha Morcha.
Stay tuned for further updates.
