The farmers’ protests running for more than a month are gaining momentum day by day. Farmers from multiple states are gradually pooling at the borders of Delhi. Teams have been placed to promote the movement over social media with special people ensuring cyber-security of the live-streaming and the posts. Supports from various groups and different parts of the country (like doctors) have gathered for the farmers, cornering the central government into an increasingly uncomfortable and uneasy position. Here are some recent updates on the protests.

Farmers agreed for talks on December 30-criticize absence of agenda in letter of invite

Protesting farmer unions on Monday agreed “in-principle” to a government proposal of holding the next round of talks on the new agricultural laws on December 30. They said that the Centre should have spelt out the agenda of the meeting in its invite. “In our letter sent to the government on December 26, we had clearly mentioned that repeal of three farm laws and legal guarantee for MSP should be part of the agenda for fresh talks, but despite this, the government in letter today has not mentioned any specific agenda,” a leader of Samyukt Kisan Morcha said.

No stopping our movement, say the farmers of Uttarakhand

In Uttarakhand, the intensity of farmers’ protest against the three new farm laws is increasing with the protesters insisting that they will march to the borders of New Delhi to join protesters from other states. This comes after farmers from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and other organizations from MP involved in the wholesale market are joining the protests at the Delhi-border.

United Sikh Nagar farmers augmenting the protests

The intensity of the protest has increased especially in the US Nagar district which has a sizable number of Sikhs, many of whom are farmers. The farmers’ passion was evident on December 25 when more than 1,000 farmers heading towards the Delhi border clashed with a heavy police force that was deployed to stop them at Bazpur.  The farmers broke through the barricades on their tractor injuring some policemen. The videos and photographs of the incident made rounds on social media. Later the district police booked about 1,500 unidentified farmers on charges of rioting and stopping police from doing their duty. However, no arrests have been made so far. Many of the farmers who broke through the barricades eventually reached Ghazipur on Delhi’s eastern border where a large number of protesters have already pitched camp.

Farmers and Sikh organizations supporting them have now decided to join the agitating farmers near Delhi in larger numbers

Gurbaz Singh Virk said, “In no way we are going to stop our agitation against the farm laws. After a call by the farmer organizations to head Delhi on December 25, we did that by breaking the police barricades. Now, soon again a similar call is going to be given on which more number of farmers are going to head towards Delhi.”

Gurbaz Singh Virk is the US Nagar district president. United Sikh Federation is agitating with the farmers of the district at Ghazipur on Delhi’s border since December 25.  Virk said that the farmers have drawn a strategy on “how to gather more farmers from all over the state to head to Delhi.”

“We have divided all the 13 districts into sectors. From there the farmers would gather in US Nagar and prepare to head to the Delhi border while waiting for the next call of our leaders,” he said.

Gurinder Singh Sahni, another farmer from US Nagar agitating against the farm laws, expressed his anger against the government for deploying a large number of police to stop them.

Sahni stated and put forth a rhetoric, “First this government tried to threaten the farmers against the protest by filing a case. Then they deployed a significant police force at the state border with barricades to stop us. What does all this signify? Are we criminals?”

Lashing out at the BJP government in Uttarakhand, Sahni added, “When even the Supreme Court had said that the farmers should not be stopped from protesting then why is the government stopping us using the police? We are not going to stop our protest and soon head towards Delhi again.” Supreme court, in the face of criticisms of being indifferent  had stated that the protests can go on till they are peaceful.

Sahni stating about the Dasvand (10% contribution of produce to charity like Langar) in Sikhism, said that the Gurudwara management committees or Gurudwara prabandhak committees of the local gurudwaras in US Nagar have also extended their support to the protesting farmers.

Amid the ongoing protest by farmers, the Opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Uttarakhand have also put their weight behind the farmers to attack the ruling BJP.