On one hand, several farmers and labor organizations led by the United Kisan Morcha (Non-political) are continuously sitting on dharna at Shambhu and Khanauri barriers and the hunger strike of farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal is continuing. On the other hand, the United Kisan Morcha (SKM) is trying to hold a dharna in Chandigarh, due to which the police have sealed the borders of Chandigarh. In order to thwart the dharna to be held in Chandigarh by the United Kisan Morcha (SKM) for the demands of farmers and laborers, the Punjab Police has taken major action and detained hundreds of district and block level farmer leaders, including a large number of state farmer leaders, and has placed a large number of farmer leaders under house arrest.
It is worth mentioning that before the Chandigarh dharna of the farmers’ organizations, the meeting between Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann and the farmers’ leaders has been inconclusive, due to which the farmers’ organizations have insisted on holding a Chandigarh dharna and the Punjab government has started trying to stop the farmers’ leaders from holding a Chandigarh dharna. The farmers’ leaders are alleging that the Punjab Chief Minister is playing an anti-farmer role and the demands of the farmers are not being fulfilled by the Punjab government. The farmers’ leaders say that the Punjab government and the Punjab Police are trying to suppress the voice of the farmers, but the farmers are not afraid of the actions of the police. The farmers will raise their voice.
On the other hand, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has said that the farmers’ leaders want to run an equal government in the state and they hold dharnas only to take credit. Chief Minister Mann says that he (Mann) is angry with the people of Punjab. He has said that sometimes farmers’ organizations stop projects of roads, sometimes railways, sometimes national highways and this is causing economic loss of thousands of crores of rupees to the state. Chief Minister Mann says that farmers’ groups have also started interfering in the fight between daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, they stage protests in front of immigration centers but this will not be allowed to happen now. According to Chief Minister Mann, there is a war of credit going on among farmers’ unions and one union after another is ready to stage a protest on some pretext or the other.
The farmers’ issue is becoming more complicated due to both the parties remaining firm on their respective stands. It has often been seen that in support of their demands, farmers’ labor organizations often stage protests on various roads and railway lines and stop road and rail traffic, which does not affect the government but the common people are very upset. Due to this, arguments often break out between the farmers who stop the traffic and the common people. Due to the repeated traffic stoppages by farmers and workers, a large number of people in Punjab are against the farmer labor organizations. That is why the current farmer movement is not getting the same public response as the previous farmer movement.
The main demands of the farmers are related to the central government and the central government is continuing talks with the farmers. The common people do not understand why the farmer labor organizations are now holding protests despite the ongoing talks between the farmer organizations and the central government? When the central government has already started talks with the farmer leaders to resolve the farmers’ demands, what is the purpose of the protests being held by the farmer organizations?
Some political experts say that there is no unity among the farmer organizations. The farmer organizations that are holding protests at Shambhu and Khanauri barriers and holding talks with the central government are different and the farmer organizations that are holding a protest in Chandigarh are different. In this way, the lack of unity and mutual division among the farmer organizations has come to the fore. The common people do not understand which of the two sides is right and which is wrong? The common people only know that due to the sit-ins of the farmer-labour organizations, only the common people have to suffer. Due to these sit-ins, the farmer-labour organizations do not suffer anything and the government does not suffer any harm, but still the farmer-labour organizations are giving priority to the politics of sit-ins.
First of all, the farmer-labour organizations need mutual unity so that they can jointly put pressure on the government for the demands of the farmer-labourers. It is better that the farmer-labour organizations give priority to talks with the Punjab and Central governments in favor of their demands. Issues are never resolved through sit-ins and every issue is resolved only through talks. Therefore, the farmer-labour organizations should give priority to talks with the government instead of the politics of sit-ins.
