Farmers broaden agenda, no longer just about laws

Union leaders say that they will oppose the Centre’s economic policies, ‘privatization’ plans

Farm unions protesting three agricultural laws passed last year are broadening their agenda to oppose the Modi government’s major economic policies, including the new asset monetization programme, which, they claim, will impact the farm sector directly.

A key farm union leader, Gurnam Singh Charuni, accused the Union government of harbouring a secret agenda to “kill farmers and their leaders” by unleashing brutal police force -an allegation that follows a bloody put-down of a farm protest in Haryana’s Karnal on Saturday. Rakesh Tikait, a leader representing the Bharatiya Kisan Union, said “sarkari Taliban and their commanders” had been identified, referring to the government and bureaucrats as “Taliban”.

“Haryana has always been a land of farmers’ activism. But never before we have seen such brutality. Both the state and central government have a secret agenda to kill farmers and farm leaders through police beatings,” Gurnam Singh Charuni, a top leader of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha said.

A redrawn agenda of the unions is likely to be unveiled on September 5, when a major mahapanchayat (rural rally) is slated to be held in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzzafarnagar.

Farmers, largely from Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, are on protest since November last year, demanding a rollback of a set of laws to liberalise the farm sector in a challenge to the Modi government.

On Saturday, a farmer, Sushil Kajal, died after returning from a protest in Haryana’s Karnal, where protestors faced heavy police crackdown. State authorities have denied he died from the beating, saying the deceased had a heart condition.

A viral video showing a Haryana sub-divisional magistrate, Ayush Sinha, issuing a set of instructions in which he asked a posse of riot policemen to “break the heads” of protesting farmers has riled farm unions.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha has held a series of meeting