The ‘Delhi Chalo’ Farm Protest
Politics
Thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana are marching towards Delhi, to oppose the farm bills passed in September. As we covered in a post on September 27:
In practice, the ordinances:
Give farmers access to trade areas and traders beyond the notified APMC markets without any license or paying any commission
Formalise and regulate contractual farming and dispute settlement mechanisms
Regularize essential items and frees traders from arbitrary stocking limits
Why are the farmers protesting?
They fear that private intervention would not guarantee them an MSP for their crops
They also feel it would lead to instability in the existing trade areas (mandis), affecting thousands of farmers, traders and commission agents
These laws will hit the small and marginalised farmers (>70% of India’s farmers, who are often landless) the worst. Without MSP, these farmers would be exposed to aggressive pricing of an open market, leading to compromised sales, losses, debt and landlessness. Although the ordinances talks about a support price for farmers, the issue around MSP lacks clarity
Chronological Updates
Farmers started marching from Punjab and Haryana towards Delhi, on Wednesday, with an aim to stage protests in the Capital
The farmers reached Delhi borders at Tikri on Friday morning, where they were met with tear gas and water cannons from the Delhi Police (water canons were also used on them on the way in Haryana). Some reports also mention occurrences of stone pelting (not sure by which group)
Delhi Police sought permission to use the city’s stadiums as temporary jails- a request which was denied by the Delhi government
At around 3.30pm on Friday, the farmers were allowed to enter Delhi, and were escorted to the protest site, Nirankari Samagam Ground in the Burari area
On Saturday, a 26-year old farmer, Navdeep Singh was charged with attempt to murder and rioiting. He had climbed the water cannon vehicle to shut it off and then jumped on to a tractor
Who is leading the protest?
The Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), comprising 30+ farmer organisations, is leading the protest. They say that they have written to the PM asking for negotiations and a site for farmers to assemble.
What are their demands?
Rollback of the three reform laws
A written assurance in the form of a bill that the MSP and conventional food grain procurement system for the central pool will continue in future
Dropping of the electricity bill amendment by the Centre
Direct Comments
“I welcome Centre’s decision to allow farmers to enter Delhi to exercise their democratic right to protest. They should also now initiate immediate talks to address farmers' concerns on the farm laws and resolve the simmering issue.”- Punjab CM Amarinder Singh (ANI)
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar accused Amarinder Singh of inciting the protests and playing "cheap politics" during the pandemic.
"We will not endanger the residents of Delhi,"- Delhi police officer Gaurav Sharma