New Delhi: Farmers’ union said Tuesday evening they will hold a ‘Kisan Parliament’ at Jantar Mantar during the ongoing Monsoon session. The farmers’ union will organise the ‘parliament’ everyday from July 22 and 200 protesters will go there from the Singhu border. After a meeting with Delhi Police officials earlier in the day, a farmers’ union leader said they will hold peaceful demonstrations at Jantar Mantar. They will continue to demand for the scrapping of the agri laws. However, no protester will go to Parliament where the monsoon session is underway.
“We will hold ‘Kisan Parliament’ from July 22 till the Monsoon session ends and 200 protesters will go to Jantar Mantar every day. One speaker and one deputy speaker will be chosen every day. In the first two days, there will be discussion over the APMC Act. Later, the other bills will also be discussed every two days,” the farmers’ union leaders said.
Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh national president Shiv Kumar Kakka said farmers will wear identification badges. He added that all the 40 farmer unions are part of the protests.
The Monsoon session of Parliament started Monday and is scheduled to conclude on August 13. “We informed the police that every day 200 farmers will go to Jantar Mantar from the Singhu border in buses during the Monsoon session. It will be a peaceful demonstration and protesters will have identification badges,” Kakka said. “When police asked us to reduce the number of protesters, we told them to focus on the law-and-order situation. We also gave assurance that the protest will be peaceful,” added the farmer leader.
No written communication has been received from the police yet, he said. “Police were informed that the protest will be peaceful. We will sit at Jantar Mantar from 10.00am to 5.00pm. Nobody will go to the Parliament and neither will we allow any political person to come to the protest,” Kakka informed.
During a meeting Sunday, the Delhi Police had asked farmer unions to reduce the number of people attending the protest, but it was declined by the farmers’ union leaders. A day later, the SKM accused the Delhi Police of spreading misinformation by describing their protest outside Parliament as ‘Sansad gherao’. The SKM has already stated that there are no plans of laying siege to Parliament, and the protest will be peaceful and disciplined.
Thousands of farmers from across the country have been agitating at the Delhi borders against the three farm laws that they claim will do away with the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations. Over 10 rounds of talks with the government, which has been projecting the laws at major agricultural reforms, have failed to break the deadlock between the two parties.