New Delhi: Farmer representatives from around 40 unions on Sunday requested a “peaceful Bharat Bandh” on December 8 and announced that weddings would be exempted from the nationwide protest.
Baldev Singh Nihal, Ashok Dhanvle, Tenjinder Virk, Comrade BV and Yogendra Yadav announced the move after a day-long meeting held to chalk out plan for the ‘Bharat Bandh’, a move to raise their voice against the Centre’s three contentious farm laws enacted in September during the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Chandigarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha and Tamil Nadu and a joint platform of 10 central trade unions have so far extended their support to the call which was made public after the fifth round of the government-farmer talks remained inconclusive with both sides adamant on their positions.
Farmer leader Nihal said that the agitation is not only of Punjab farmers but also for the whole nation.
“Since the government is not taking us seriously, we have called ‘Bharat Bandh’ and that the Ministers in fifth round of government-farmer talks on Saturday got upset with the idea of nationwide shutdown.
“All the transport and shops would be closed since morning. The transport will be opened by noon but shops will remain closed. We won’t let anyone interfere in this and would take strict action. Youth farmers from Gujarat are also joining tomorrow. Gujarat is the state of Prime Minister Modi,” he said.
Another farmer leader Jagmohan Singh said the govt has to “take back the three laws” and “we made it clear in yesterday’s meeting that this is a non-negotiable demand”.
Yogendra Yadav announced that “weddings would be exempted from the Bharat Bandh”.
Amarjeet, another farmer leader, requested protesting farmers and others to hold a “peaceful Bharat Bandh on December 8”, and said that “the government might try to turn it violent”.
As the ongoing farmers protest entered the 11th day on Sunday, the farmer representatives were engaged in meeting since morning at Singhu Border — one of the protest spots on the Delhi-Chandigarh route — to chalk out a plan for the ‘Bharat Bandh’ and discuss further strategy of the agitation.
The farmer leaders have decided to continue their sit-in until their first and major demand to repeal all three farm laws is not accepted. It is reported emergency services and wedding processions will be allowed to operate.
While the government was agreeable in the fifth government-farmer meet to undertake amendments to The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020, farmers were pushing for the scrapping of these laws.