As the second wave of Corona sweeps the country, thousands of farmers are, still, protesting along the borders of capital New Delhi for nearly six months. The farmers, largely from Punjab, Haryana and western UP have been protesting against the three farm bills passed by the Modi government in September last year.
Though harvesting of summer crops drove thousands of protesting farmer back home. but many of them stay put and continued the protest. The protest site has now more permanent huts and trolleys having coolers and air conditioners for the summer.
As things stand now, the farmers plan to continue their protests indefinitely, corona or no corona. Throughout the second wave, Delhi’s three borders – Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur – remained choked by the huge numbers of farmers sitting in protest despite imposition of corona regulations and lock downs in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab. Farmers continue to travel back and forth between their homes and the protest sites.
Balbir Singh Rajewal, the president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal), told media earlier this week that while it’s difficult to count the number of farmers presently camped out at the protest sites but about “10,000 farmers” had made their way to Tikri and Singhu borders on May 10, mainly from Haryana and Punjab.
Protests have continued in Punjab, organised by the leaders of the 32 farmer unions who have been spearheading the farmers’ movement.
Despite Delhi police putting up cement barricades, digging up the roads around protest sites making it difficult for vehicles to pass, yet police high handedness couldn't break the high fighting spirits of protesting farmers
A plea was filed in the Supreme Court on May 11 this week seeking directions to remove these barricades at Singhu border as it was “aggravating distress” and hindering the smooth movement between the two states.
Given the rise in cases and the impossibility of enforcing social distancing norms at crowded protest sites, a question is often asked: Should the farmer leaders suspend their protests?
To this, Balbir Singh Rajewal told media,“If we go back now, no one is going to care for us and the government will continue with the three laws in place. And if these laws continue, our future is over. So, this is a life and death situation for us.”
So, its almost certain that protesting farmers are not going to end their six-month long agitation and may continue it indefinitely. Farmers seem dead set to continue their agitation.
Meanwhile the Prime Minister Narendra Modi today released the 8th installment of financial benefit under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme to over 9.5 crore farmers in the country. While interacting with the farmers from states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman and Nicobar, he mentioned how farmers of Punjab and Haryana have benefited, but not a single word about agitating farmers
Under the PM-KISAN Scheme, the Modi government provides a financial assistance of Rs 6,000 per year to farmers. The amount is payable in 3 equal installments of Rs 2,000 each. The first installment is deposited between December and March, the second between April and July, and the third between August and November.The amount is directly transferred into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries through the direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode. Under the scheme, an amount of over Rs 1.15 lakh crore has been transferred to farmer families so far.
For PM Modi and his saffron party, agitating farmers are anti-national and pro -Pakistani. Condemn it or hail it, but its the ground reality. As long as saffron party is ruling at the center, agitating farmers should expect no relief. They will have to fight a long long battle.
(Chander Sharma)
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