Bathinda/Hisar: Farmer union representative Jagjit Singh Dallewal, on 40th day of his indefinite fast, called for a nationwide mobilisation of farmers to ensure their demands, including legal right of minimum support price (MSP) on crops as per C2+50% formula, are met.
Addressing a kisan mahapanchayat at Khanauri on Punjab-Haryana border, Dallewal said it was not his fight alone, but concerned everyone, and exhorted each village to send at least one tractor-trolley to the protest site to intensify the struggle, “so that govt cannot think of making any attack on the morcha”.
Dallewal, who addressed the large gathering from the stage while lying on a bed, appealed to farmer outfits in other states to fight strongly for legal guarantee to MSP to send a message to the Centre that it was not Punjab’s demand alone. The mahapanchayat was called in support of the farmer representative, who has been on a hunger strike amid deadlock over talks on the long-pending demands of the farmers.
Contesting govt figure of 4 lakh farmer suicides, Dallewal said “as per our knowledge, over 7 lakh farmers ended lives due to debt”. “SC observed that my life is precious, but I feel the lives of all those who committed suicide were precious for their respective families, and no more lives should go waste,” he added.
Speaking at another kisan mahapanchayat in Haryana’s Tohana, Sanyukta Kisan Morcha representative Rakesh Tikait took aims at central govt, accusing it of prolonging the stir with the aim to rupture farmers’ unity and defame Sikhs. Although Tohana gathering expressed concerns over Dallewal’s deteriorating health, Tikait also took jibes, alleging Centre was sustaining agitation in Punjab to make it look bigger than Delhi protests in 2020-2021, which SKM had spearheaded.
