NEW DELHI: Mobilisation of farmers opposed to the new farm laws is in full swing for the Bharat bandh on Monday. Their presence at the Singhu protest site along the Delhi-Haryana border has considerably swelled.
The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) has called the nationwide strike and appealed to all organisations of workers, traders, transporters, businessmen, students, youth and women to voluntarily participate in it from 6am to 4pm. Considering support of political parties including Congress and trade unions, the bandh is expected to be wider than the previous one, as the farm groups appear to be more organised in states beyond Punjab, Haryana, western UP and parts of Rajasthan.
Geared up for the bandh, the farmers on Saturday said they were determined not to leave the protest site till the government accepts their demand and repeal the three central farm laws. “We’ll not leave the place. No matter if we have to be here for another year,” said Sukhdev Singh, elderly farmer from Ludhiana. He has been at the Singhu border protest site for the past 10 months.
Every farmer TOI spoke to at the protest site shows similar determination while flagging how their number has consistently been increasing and the road stretch they covered on highways has been getting longer.
On whether participating in the protests would affect their farming operations, young farmer Rajdeep Singh of Amritsar said, “We have been joining the protest in rotation. I am here while my father and other family members are there in the village to look after farming operations”.
Though their number may slightly decrease during peak harvest season from October end to mid-November, they will be back after sowing Rabi crops, and be there at protest sites in bigger numbers.
