Yadav, Patkar arrested on way to meet farmers’ families in MP
OVER THE PAST MONTH, CHOUHAN HAS BEEN TRYING HIS BEST TO WOO FARMERS BACK, WHO FORM THREEFOURTHS OF THE ELECTORATE
Tens and hundreds of farmers, including Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav, NBA leader Medha Patkar and Maharashtra MP Raju Shetti, were arrested at village Gutbeli Mor, around 10km from Pipliyamandi. The leaders were on their way to pay their respect to six farmers killed in police firing and lathi charge exactly a month ago in Mandsaur.
Collector Omprakash Shrivastava said they were arrested as prohibitory orders were imposed in Pipliyamandi and they violated it. Protesters squatted on road for an hour before being escorted to waiting buses amid slogan shouting.
Talking to HT, Yadav said that the state government was trying to prevent the peaceful farmers’ movement by coercion. “Police have been placed everywhere. Many farmers were prevented from joining the agitation by threatening them,” he said.
Farmers, some of whom are from Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, were taking out a Kisan Mukti Yatra under the banner of Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti, a broad alliance of many organisations. They were demanding a loan waiver and remunerative prices for their produce.
The yatra is scheduled to reach Delhi ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, which begins on July 17.
Shetti said that they were not against any government, something that chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan should understand. “We are against the overall system that is literally killing the farmers and we will do everything peacefully,” he said.
The yatra comes at a time when many farmers are busy tilling their fields for the Kharif crop. But a rattled Shivraj Singh government is desperately trying to soothe the frayed nerves of farmers angry over the killings and un-remunerative prices.
Over the past month, Chouhan has been trying his best to woo farmers back, who form threefourths of the electorate, through a series of measures. Apart from giving ₹1 crore in compensation to those killed in firing and ₹5 lakh to those injured — an unheard of sum for people getting killed in police firing — Chouhan has personally visited the families of those killed.