NEW DELHI: The protesting farmer unions may be pitching for six demands, but their most pressing ones at current juncture boils down to two – withdrawal of over 50,000 cases registered against farmers during protests and financial assistance to kin of those who died during agitation – with the remaining four being pushed for resolution subsequently through talks.
One can get this sense after talking to farmers who have been protesting at Delhi borders for over 12 months. They said they cannot leave the fellow farmers under uncertainty over the fate of the cases registered by state police and by Railways. They cited examples of past agitation, demanding reservation for Jats, when many protesters had to attend court proceedings for years.
The farmer unions, meanwhile, continue to wait for formal communication from the government on resuming talks even as the President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the Farm Laws Repeal Act and thus completed the Centre’s formality on the key demand of farmers.
Though the government informally reached out to the unions this week, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) – joint platform of farmer unions – has been insisting for talks on the Centre’s concrete proposals to resolve their pending demands including legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP).
“The movement is moving from struggle to an agreement and that’s why we want the government to resume talks with farmers so that our pending issues could be resolved through discussions. Farmers won’t go back home having over 50,000 cases against them,” said Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, hinting at the unions’ most pressing demand at this juncture.
Another farmer leader said, “Though we want the government to address all six demands of farmers, withdrawal of cases and compensation can be the first two most important demands at this moment to break the ice.”
Even the SKM wants these issues to be resolved through urgent intervention. Referring to the government’s statement in the Parliament that it has no information about the number of deaths in the farmers movement and therefore, the question of financial assistance does not arise, the SKM on Thursday said, “This movement has a record of all the brave martyrs of the movement and is waiting for the government to fulfill the demand for rehabilitation of the kin of the martyrs, amongst other demands, by making this record as the initial basis for urgent intervention.”
The Morcha too reiterated its stand of not ending the protests until their demands are met. “The central government forces protesting farmers to stay put at the ‘morchas’ (protest sites) without any formal communication… Farmers continue to wait for positive developments, and for their legitimate demands to be met,” said the SKM.
It said, “All pucca morchas (permanent protest sites) are continuing at dozens of toll plazas and other locations including in places like Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, in Wardha of Maharashtra, in Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan and so on… The SKM-announced social boycott of BJP-JJP leaders continues in Haryana.”