Members of some farmers organisations and activists will join the State-level ‘Save Nation Sankalp Yatre’ in Belagavi on April 8.
This was announced after a meeting of farmers leaders and civil society activists in Belagavi on Thursday.
Sidagouda Modagi, who addressed the meeting, said that the yatre was aimed at countering the rise of fascist and capitalist forces that were framing and implementing anti-farmer policies.
The NDA government at the Centre has been working only for the rich corporates in the last ten years.
“The Union government has been trying to crush farmers movements across the country. It has not responded to the farmers’ protest for legalised universal Minimum Support Price. Despite the year-long protest by farmers, the Union government is still trying to introduce anti-farmer policies like indiscriminate imports, contract farming and regional farm produce import agreements that are likely to crush the domestic dairy industry,” he said. Just because we are opposing the policies of the BJP, it does not mean that we are supporters of any particular party. It is an intellectual fight, he clarified.
Shankar Dhavali, Labour Union leader, said that the NDA government was also trying to crush dissent among intellectuals and activists by intimidating them and harassing them. The government is also reducing the autonomy of Constitutional bodies and is misusing enforcement agencies. To stop all this, we are carrying out the campaign across the country and Karnataka, he said. “While the BJP is going around with the slogan of ‘Ab Ki Baar 400 Paar’, we are popularisng the slogan of ‘Ab Ki Baar BJP Ki Haar’,” he said.
Yallappa Hemmadi, writer, said that a coordinated campaign including writers, artists and thinkers would be organised pan-India to see that Constitutional rights of citizens were protected. “When we speak of rights of citizens, it includes the rights of religious minorities, deprived communities, women and the urban and rural poor,” he said.
Former Minister B.T. Lalitha Nayak and other leaders will be present in the rally. They will hold a meeting in the Kannada Sahitya Bhavan hall near Rani Channamma Circle.
Members of various organisations like Krishik Samaj, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatan, trade unions, weaver associations and women’s organisations will be part of the rally, he said.
M.M. Jamadar, G.V. Kulkarni, Gaibusab Jainekhan, Shivaleela Misale, Manda Navage, Clara Fernandes, Basavaraj Murgod and others spoke.
