Pro-farmer organisations staged protests in Shivamogga and Hassan extending support to the Bharat Bandh call given by the Bharatiya Kisan Union on Friday. The union had called for a nation-wide bandh to mark the completion of four months’ protest in Delhi against the anti-farm laws. The organisations did not observe bandh in these districts.
The protesters burnt copies of the controversial farm laws and raised slogans against the Central government. Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha leader H.R. Basavarajappa, who led the protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Shivamogga, said the Centre had been ‘adamant’ on the issue. The farmers had been on the streets for the last four months. “We have burnt the copies of the anti-farm laws. Our protest is symbolic to suggest that if the farmers’ demands were ignored the BJP government would also collapse”, he said.
The protesters also demanded the State government withdraw the cases registered against BKU leader Rakesh Tikait. “The leader had not spoken anything provocative in his speeches in Shivamogga and Haveri. He had not given a call for either to commit murder or attack someone. All that he said was to gather in Bengaluru and protest as it had been going on in Delhi”, he said. K.L.Ashok of Komu Souharda Vedike and others participated in the protest.
In Hassan, representatives of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha, Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, CITU and AITUC participated in a protest in front of the Hemavati Statue.
They raised slogans against the anti-farm laws and demanded a law to guarantee minimum support price for crops. They also criticised the Centre citing the increasing fuel prices and cost of essential commodities.
KRRS district president Babu, KPRS district president H.R. Naveen Kumar, DSS leaders Krishnadas, Ambuga Mallesh, CITU district secretary M.B. Pushpa and others participated.
