Jat unity at Kisan Mahapanchayat
Farmers reiterate demand to remove curbs around protest sites in Delhi and repeal the legislation
JIND: Thousands of people thronged a mega rally of farmers in the heart of Haryana on Wednesday as leaders of the ongoing protest against the three agriculture laws called on young people to join the stir and demanded the government remove restrictions around the agitation sites in Delhi and repeal the controversial legislation.
The kisan mahapanchayat in Jind’s Kandela village, known as the political nerve centre of the influential Jat community, drew the participation of 50 khaps, or clan-based bodies, and more than 30 thousand people.
The event ended with the adoption of five resolutions: repealing of the laws passed in September, legal backing to the minimum support price regime, implementation of the 2004 Swaminathan Commission recommendations, farm loan waiver and withdrawal of police cases against farmer protesters.
The mahapanchayat was addressed by over two dozen people, including farm leader Rakesh Tikait, whose emotional appeal for support last week attracted thousands of people from western Uttar Pradesh to a protest site outside Delhi and rejuvenated the two-month-long stir. “We have so far talked about ‘bill wapsi’ (repealing the farm laws). The government should listen carefully. What will you do if the youth call for ‘gaddi wapsi’ (removal from power)?,” he said.
Tikait, a leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), also attacked the government over heavy barricading of the three main protest sites on Delhi’s outskirts: Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur. The sites have turned into fortresses with police digging trenches, putting up barbed wire fences, concrete barricades and hammering beds of nails on roads. The police action came after farmers ran riot during a tractor rally on Republic Day, storming the Red Fort and hoisting the Sikh flag from its ramparts. Since then, at least 115 farmers have been held by police.
“Our khaps have decided to remove these nails and barbed wires.” “Jab-jab Raja darta hai, kilebandi karta hai (Whenever a king feels threatened, he fortifies),” he added, the crowd chanting the slogan with him.
“I want to assure you that your turban will not bend before anyone and the government will have to repeal the farm laws. We are ready to protest till October and will observe this year as Yuva kranti [youth revolution],” he added, to loud applause.
Tikait also called on young people to visit fields and bring soil and water to their houses. “I urge you to visit your fields and touch the soil with your body. If you do this, no one will sell your land to anyone in extreme situations too in the next 50 years. We have to save our lands. You give me your anger and we will win this battle.” His speech was cut short when the main stage collapsed under the weight of the people standing on it. No one was seriously hurt.
This was the first mahapanchayat in Haryana since the farm protests began last year and was held in the politically sensitive Kandela village, considered a rebel belt of Haryana farmers. The village shot to limelight in 2002 when nine farmers died in police firing during protests against the state government’s refusal to waive power bills. The farmers banned then chief minister OP Chautala and his family from the village, and only relented in 2019 current deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala and his uncle Abhay Chautala of apologised.
Tekram Kandela, head of the Kandela khap, said Tikait called him and asked to hold a mahapanchayat. “It was the people of Kandela, who blocked the Chandigarh –Hisar highway within an hour after seeing the weeping video of him on January 27 evening. Hundreds of farmers from our village reached the Ghazipur border that night. Rakesh Tikait took part in the meeting to thank the khaps and other farmers,” Kandela said in the meeting.
Tikait’s brother, BKU chief Naresh Tikait, held a similar mahapanchayat in Muzaffarnagar last week when farmers -many of whom hailed from the Jat community -- vowed to join the stir.
In his speech, Tikait put to rest any speculation about a rift between the farm unions and said 40 leaders who are part of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body leading the agitation, will continue to hold negotiations with the government. “We will support the Punjab leadership. The Punjab leadership will head the delegation.”
“We will not change any of our 40 members, who are part of delegation. In this war, we will not change our horses but fight this battle with injured horses,” he added.
The protest was set off by three laws passed September that allow agribusinesses to trade with minimal regulation, permit traders to stockpile large quantities of food commodities for economies of scale and lay down new contract farming rules. Farmers say the new rules favour big corporations to whom they will lose business and gradually end the system of state-set minimum prices. The government has refuted the concerns, and offered to put the laws on hold for 18 months, but talks are currently locked in a stalemate.