Farmers meet at Singhu, plan march to Parliament

New Delhi: Motivated by the victory over the contentious farm laws, the farmers' front Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) met at the Singhu border on Sunday and decided to march to Parliament on November 29 when the houses meet for the Winter Session, NDTV reported. The march was among a series of programmes decided in the meeting.

In their first meeting post the announcement of the repeal of the laws, farmers decided to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi an open letter raising their pending demands. The most prominent of them is central legislation to guarantee a Minimum Support Price (MSP).

Though the PM has promised that the farm laws will be withdrawn soon, the farmers have decided to continue the protest until the laws are officially repealed. They also demanded that the police cases against the protesters over a year be withdrawn. SKM's statement on Sunday said that a Kisan Mahapanchayat would be held in Lucknow on Monday, a Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Diwas will be observed on prominent British Indian politician Sir Chhotu Ram's birth anniversary on November November 24, and two marches will be organised, first to Delhi borders on November 26 and the second to Parliament on November 29. Also, another meeting is scheduled for November 27 to review the situation.

On Sunday, SKM, while appreciating the Telangana governments announcement to support families of farmers who died in protest, said that Modi and his government do not acknowledge the heavy and avoidable sacrifices of 700 brave farmers.

Responding to the PM's comment that there may be something lacking in the government's "Tapasya" that they could not explain the truth of the laws to some farmers, the SKM said that it was the protesting farmers who did the true Tapasya with faith. It said that this victory of the "annadaatas" will be a victory of democracy itself. It is not a question of someone's pride or ego but a matter of lives of millions ignored and marginalised, it added.