Farmers Across Country Observe ‘Anti-Repression Day’ Against ‘Police Raj’ in Punjab

New Delhi: Farmers across the country observed ‘Anti-Repression Day’ on Friday, demanding end to ‘Police Raj’ in Punjab. Protests demonstrations were held in several states, with huge participation of women.

Meanwhile, on Friday, farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, who has been on a fast since November 26, reportedly ended his indefinite fast following the release of some farmer leaders, the Punjab government informed the Supreme Court. However,  his supporters denied the news, saying that the ailing farmer leader had just had some water, and accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab of “spreading lies”, according to the Hindustan Times.

Dallewal’s fast near the Punjab-Haryana border is part of the long-standing struggle by various farmer organisations demanding legal guarantee for minimum support prices (MSP) among other issues.

Congratulating farmers across the country, especially women, participating in large numbers to observe the ‘Anti-Repression Day’, the Samyukta Kisna Morcha (SKM) also welcomed the release of all the jailed farmer leaders of KMM (Kisan Mukti Morcha) and SKM (Non-Political), terming it as a “partial victory” of the unity of the peasant movement and countrywide massive farmer protest.

“India is a democratic country and the people with self-respect will never allow authoritarian rulers to suppress the democratic right of the citizens to protest by brutally using Police force and jails,” SKM said in a statement on Friday. 

The farmers’ collective, which spearheaded a year-long farmers’ movement on the border of Delhi in 2020, strongly condemned the “suppression of the farmer’s agitations” at Shambhu and Khanuri borders by the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government in Punjab and also criticised the Narendra Modi-led Centre for its “failure to resolve the genuine, long pending demands of the agitating farmers.”

SKM said that instead of supporting the farmers demand for remunerative price, loan waiver and repeal of NPFAM (Natiional Framework Policy on Agricultural Marketing), on which the - Punjab Assembly had adopted a resolution, the action by the Mann government to “unleash police to crush the farmers struggle was politically wrong, aimed at facilitating the corporate interests.” It warned the AAP that it would have to pay a “heavy price” for this.

On March 20,  Punjab Police “brutally” cracked down on protesting farmers on the Punjab-Haryana borders, and detained about 300 farmers, including some top leaders of the KMM and SKM-NP.

SKM demanded that the “Punjab Chief Minister should adhere to democratic practices of governance, end the bulldozer raj and not repeat the violation of the constitutional right of the people to have peaceful, massive protests.”

Protests to be Intensified

The SKM national coordination committee is scheduled to meet on Saturday, March 29, to decide the immediate future plan of action.    

Farmer unions owing allegiance to SKM-NP, KMM and SKM also announced that they had decided to unitedly resist the corporatisation of agriculture.

The SKM statement said that the demand for remunerative price to farm produce, freedom from indebtedness and no privatisation of electricity among others will be intensified across the country.