Chandigarh: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a conglomerate of over three dozen farmer unions in Punjab, has lent its complete support to the ongoing hunger “satyagraha” by farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, announcing to take the protest forward unitedly.
A six-member committee of the SKM met Dallewal at his protest site at Khanauri in Sangrur on the Punjab-Haryana border Friday to show solidarity towards what they said was the “common cause of legal guarantee for MSP (minimum support price) for crops”, apart from other demands.
Dallewal, who heads the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political), has been on a hunger strike since 26 November and his health has visibly deteriorated in the past few weeks. His failing health has elicited a renewed interest in the protest of farmers who ensured a virtually complete bandh across Punjab on 30 December and held a mahapanchayat at the protest site on 4 January.
Dallewal’s protest site at Khanauri is different from the Shambhu border in Patiala, the second site of farmers’ protest led by Sarwan Singh Pandher who heads the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha. Farmers under the banner of these two forums have been squatting on these two sites since February last year.
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Both Dallewal and Pandher were members of the SKM that had led the year-long farmers’ agitation at the Singhu border in 2020-2021, but they went separate ways after the successful end of the protest.
Most leaders of the SKM, it is learnt, do not see eye to eye with Pandher, whom they allege attempted to sabotage the Singhu border protest by instigating youth to clash with the police at the Red Fort on 26 January, 2021.
Dallewal, who was considered to be close to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, also distanced himself from the SKM.
As a result, the majority of SKM members in Punjab, including BKU (Ugrahan) and BKU (Rajewal), were so far not participating in the current protests led by Dallewal and Pandher, but an SKM mahapanchayat in Moga Thursday took the decision to join them.
During the mahapanchayat, a “unity resolution” was passed “considering the enormity of the farmers’ demands”, according to a statement issued by the SKM. It was decided that a six-member “unity committee” of SKM will go to the Khanauri and Shambhu borders Friday and take an oath for building unity. The committee members have invited both forums—SKM (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha—for a joint meeting on 15 January in Patiala.
Addressing a joint press conference at Khanauri Friday, SKM unity committee members asserted that it was the central government, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who were responsible for the present impasse and condition of Dallewal who is on a fast unto death.
They appealed to the Centre that to save the life of Dallewal, they should hold talks with the farmer organisations. The morcha warned that if anything happened to Dallewal, the full responsibility would be on the central government.
“We were told that one of the reasons why the Government of India was not ready for talks was because we were not united. Now we are all one and the process of talks should begin,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, who heads BKU (Rajewal).
On Thursday, at the Moga mahapanchayat, the SKM declared that the new draft National Policy Framework on Agricultural Marketing was a dangerous version of the three farm laws repealed in 2021. It further alleged that the Centre was once again working for imperialists and against the federal character of the Constitution of India.
Rejecting the national policy framework, the SKM called for burning its copies on 13 January and taking out a tractor march on 26 January in Punjab.
Also Read: Why ailing Dallewal has landed Mann govt in tricky spot despite backing farmers’ stir in Punjab
A stalemate
The Aam Aadmi Party-led government in Punjab has been consistently supporting the protests at Khanauri and Shambu, backing the farmers’ demands directed at the Centre. Several AAP leaders, including cabinet ministers, have been meeting Dallewal. However, his hunger strike has so far been ignored by the Centre, with no offer of talks to defuse the situation.
Three rounds of talks between senior Union ministers led by Piyush Goyal, and Dallewal and Pandher, had taken place in February last year, following which the ministers had offered a legal guarantee of MSP for crops to only those farmers who shifted from paddy cultivation to other crops.
The offer was initially hailed by both leaders but rejected subsequently when other members of the SKM warned against settling for a compromise.
There has been a stalemate between the Centre and the two farmer leaders ever since.
Last month, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar had asked Chouhan, during an Indian Council of Agricultural Research event in Mumbai, why talks had not been initiated with the protesting farmers. Dallewal had also written to Modi saying that he would end his strike only when the PM engaged with the farmers. But there has been no response from the Centre so far.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: SKM rejects govt proposal to farmers — ‘it’s nothing new, will oppose protest leaders if they agree’
