Farmers from different organisations arrived in Delhi's Jantar Mantar on Monday morning amid a call by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) to hold protests over the proper implementation of minimum support prices (MSP) and unemployment. Heavy security was deployed around the protest sites and in the bordering areas of Delhi amid the call for protest.
"Today's protest is an ultimatum to the government that if they won't act on the promises that made with us, we will go for the long protests like we did in 2021," Jaspal Singh, a farmer from Punjab, told BOOM.
Why are the farmers protesting?
Farmers from states like Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have gathered to raise demands for a legal guarantee of MSP on their crops and to protest against the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022. The farmers had five major demands from the government at the Centre — legal guarantee on MSP, speedy enquiry on the Lakhimpur Kheri violence incident in 2021, the Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022, removal of the FIR against the farmers which were initiated during farmers protest and compensation to the families of people who died during 2021 farmers protest.
The Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2022 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on August 8. The farmers fear that subsidies may be stopped with this bill as the legislation seeks to privatise electricity. The legalisation of the MSP was a demand of the farmers even during the protests last year in Delhi's borders. It guarantees for them a minimum price that each farmer must get paid for their produce.
Kampdeep Singh, a 24-year-old master's student in history from Punjab, told BOOM, "We want the BJP government to fulfil the promises that had been made in the 2021 meeting between Kisan's and BJP government. Those were all fake promises. If they had worked on the promises, we would not have been forced to protest again." Singh belongs to a family of farmers and was in Delhi to protest.
Farmers also participated in the 'Rozgar Sansad' to protest unemployment on Sunday at Jantar Mantar. They plan to strategise for the future to ensure their demand are met.
Jagroop Singh, a farmer from Bathinda, said he was struggling to meet his expenses because of rising prices. He said, "Adani and Ambani are earning money on our blood and we are dying in fields for nothing. This government made us fools by giving fake promises, we will teach them a lesson now. We won't let this authoritarian government kill a farmer."
Security beefed up in Delhi and its borders
The Delhi Police have deployed personnel in several locations at the borders and inside the city. ANI reported that barricades were put up at the Tikri border with Haryana, and security was increased at the Ghazipur border on the Delhi-Meerut expressway and also at Singhu border. These were the locations where farmers held protests demanding three farm laws be repealed.
Photos tweeted by the news agency showed police in riot gear at these different locations.
Rakesh Tikait, the national spokesperson of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), a non-political farmer's organisation, was held by the Delhi police at the borders and was not allowed to enter the city. Tikait took to Twitter and said that the Centre was being oppressive toward the unemployed youth and farmers of the country. "The Delhi police, at the behest of the Centre did not allow me to meet the protesting youth," he said.
Tikait said that the police would not be able to mute the voices of the protesting farmers.
The Delhi traffic police issued a traffic advisory in light of the protests and to avoid certain roads in the city.
The protest is supposed to be a one-day protest.