In Delhi-like protest, Punjab farmers heading to Chandigarh

In a Delhi-like protest by farmers — mainly from Punjab — over their long-pending demands, several farm unions under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) are heading to Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, on Wednesday 5 March, to start their indefinite agitation wherever they were stopped by security personnel.

As a precaution, Chandigarh Police have sealed all the entry points to the city by deploying heavy security and issued an advisory to commuters to avoid these routes. Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ughrahan) president Joginder Singh Ughrahan has appealed to the farmers not to block the roads, highways and railway tracks as it would create public inconvenience. He advised the farmers to stage sit-in protest at roadsides at the place where security personnel stopped them from moving ahead.

But he appealed to all farmer unions to lodge the protest in a massive way by reaching Chandigarh and joining a "pakka morcha" in the city, where the administration has not yet allotted a site for the protest. Official sources said the farmers would be stopped at the city's entry point.

The SKM has accused the Punjab government of suppressing its right to protest. Besides the implementation of the agriculture policy, the demands of the SKM include land distribution to landless labourers and farmers, and debt waiver of farmers and labourers.

Hours after talks between the Punjab government, led by chief minister Bhagwant Mann, and the SKM failed on Monday, raids began being conducted at residences of farmer leaders, including Ugrahan.

Talks to discuss farmers' demands broke down midway with farmer leaders claiming a "livid" chief minister Mann "walked out of the meeting in a huff without provocation".

After the meeting, the SKM leaders announced they would go ahead with their call for a massive sit-in protest in Chandigarh. Ughrahan said discussions with the chief minster were initially going smoothly. "After discussions on eight-nine out of our 18 demands, CM Mann said he had an infection in his eye for which he needed to go," he told the media. "The CM then asked us about our plans for the 5 March protest, to which we replied that the discussions were pending and we would take a call after that," he said, adding that the CM then got upset and left the meeting, asking "us to resort to protest".

Later, chief minister Mann said his doors "are always open for talks with the farmers but inconvenience and harassment of the public in the name of agitation should be avoided". The chief minister added that the "government is always ready to resolve the issues pertaining to various sections of society through negotiations so that trouble to the common man through railway or road blockades must be avoided".

Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Tuesday criticised Mann for "ignoring" farmers, while the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) demanded the release of farmer leaders. Warring also accused the chief minister of arrogance and dismissive behaviour towards the SKM.

He said rather than engaging in constructive discussions to resolve the farmers' grievances, the government had resorted to conducting raids on the residences of farm leaders.

Expressing shock at the manner in which leaders of the SKM were being treated, SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said: "Mr Bhagwant Mann threatened the kisan leaders with dire consequences when he was reminded of the promises he had made to farmers before assuming charge as chief minister in 2022."

Reminding chief minister Mann of the promises made by him to farmers, the Akali leader said: "Mann assured farmers and farm labourers that the Aam Aadmi Party would remodel farm policies to ensure no farm suicide occurred in the state."

The chief minister had also assured farmers that farm income would be doubled and that his government would implement the M.S. Swaminathan Report whether the Centre did or not. Farmers were also assured that every crop would be procured by the state on minimum support price (MSP), Majithia added.