The Bharat Bandh (nationwide strike) call on the 8th of December, gained support from several politicians and political parties.
The farmer’s unions/organisations and farmers of Haryana and Punjab called for the nationwide strike against the three farm bills.
The three farm bills are, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020, the Farmers Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill 2020 (Empowerment and Protection) and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2020, were cleared by the President of India.
According to the passed bills, the Minimum Support Price (MSP,) area of trading would be under the purview of the Indian Government
The reason behind the farmers protest is their fear of being at the mercy of corporates or zamindars for crop prices. The new bills would also demolish the Minimum Support Price (MSP) advantages for farmers.
Thousands of farmers from Haryana and Punjab are currently protesting in several parts of New Delhi, including borders of Haryana and Punjab.
The protest started from the 25th of November and is still underway.
Despite 5 rounds of talk with the Central Government and 132 farmer’s associations and unions, the protest is still underway.
The last round of talks between the farmer’s unions and the Central Government was held on the 5th of December at 3:00 P.M.,
However, all the negotiations and meetings failed to break the protest of the farmers
The Central Government proposed another meeting on the 9th of December with the representatives of protesting farmers. The Government of India also requested protestors to send back the elderly, women and children to their homes from the protest sites.
In addition, the Bharat Bandh decision of the farmers is being supported by several party leaders.
Leaders of 11 parties, including Sonia Gandhi, the interim President of the Indian National Congress (INC,) M.K. Stalin, the President of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK,) Sharad Pawar, a leader of the National Communist Party (NCP,) Akhilesh Yadav, t he President of the Samajwadi Party (SP,) the National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD’s) Tejashwi Yadav, and other leaders supported farmers in their agitation against the Central Government’s three agriculture laws.
Extending their support, the aforementioned party leaders signed a joint statement and said the new laws were passed in Parliament in a “brazen anti-democratic manner.”
According to the statement, the process of how the new laws were passed, it prevented a structured discussion and voting.
The leaders in the statement said, the laws “threaten India’s food security, destroy Indian agriculture and our farmers, lay the basis for the abolishment of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) and mortgage Indian agriculture and our markets to the caprices of multinational agri business corporates and domestic corporates.”
The statement also read, “The central government must adhere to democratic processes and norms and meet the legitimate demands of our ‘kisans-annadatas’
Besides 11 political parties, the Shiv Sena, the Trinamool Congress (TMC,) the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS,) the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also extended support to farmers.
In addition, the allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) like AGP in Assam and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) in Rajasthan too came out in support of the stir and the Bharat Bandh call. However, they were not signatories to the joint statement.
The Bharat Bandh is scheduled on the 8th of December across the Nation.
Stay tuned for further updates.
