TAD NewsDesk, New Delhi: The farmers are yet to give a response to the government on their renewed offer for talks. The farmers will take a unanimous decision in a joint meeting and will give a response by Wednesday. And farmers have also raised a global call to broaden the horizon of protest to 10 more global cities.
Omkar Singh, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal Group) general secretary said,
“A marathon meeting of 32 farmer unions of Punjab was held today (Tuesday) in which the consensus was that the final decision on whether to talk to the government or not and how to counter them will be taken at the meeting of the Sanyukt Morcha that will be held tomorrow afternoon. The meeting will also deliberate on the reply to be sent to the government’s letter.”
The agriculture ministry has written in a letter addressing to 40 farmer unions inviting them for the next round of talks to end the protest soon. The ministry has asked to specify the remaining concerns and give them a due date as soon as possible.
The farmers are yet to sit down and make a decision as it will have to comply with 400 farmers small groups holding up the agitation.
However, simultaneously the farmers are also planning to expand the protests at a global level. They have rephrased Marx’s iconic slogan “workers of the world, unite” to “Anti-capitalists of the world, unite” and it will reverberate across around 10 global cities.
The farmer unions also plan to approach the British government requesting that Prime Minister Boris Johnson should not attend the Republic Day parade, for which he has consented to be the chief guest.
Mr Omkar Singh said,
“It was decided that MPs in the UK will be contacted with the plea to put pressure on their government that PM Johnson should not attend the January 26 function.”
A section of the Indian Sikh diaspora has already carried out large scale protests in Canada, the US, the UK and Australia.
Mewa Singh, the head of Non-Resident Indian Council in Punjab’s Ropar, said his office was coordinating with Indians abroad on making the protests global.
Another farmer leader said about the meeting,
“In today’s meeting, it was felt that till the government gives any concrete proposal and moves a step forward from its stance, which we have already rejected earlier, we should not hold further discussions as it will be meaningless.”
To express solidarity with the farmers, All India Trade Union Congress and its associate unions have decided to observe December 23 as ‘Skip Lunch’ day.
Moreover, In Punjab, arhtiyas (commission agents) closed the mandis across the state for the next four days to protest against the income tax raids on them.
Also, it was noted that hundreds of protestors blocked a key highway leading to Delhi in western Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday after they were allegedly stopped by police from moving to the national capital to join the farmers’ stir against the new agriculture laws.
We would have to see the impact and the decision of the farmers in the joint meeting to know how the discussion unfolds.
