The farmers’ protest is going on in a resilient way when the national capital Delhi is experiencing a brutal assault of the second wave of Covid19. Farmers’ organizations had been distributing food packets to the migrant labourers returning to their home states anticipating another unplanned lockdown, when the central government is not taking any care about the fear in the minds of the labourers. But, on the other side, the young farmers want to take the struggle to the next level.

At Kundli in Sonepat, scores of protesting youth farmers on Friday gheraoed the farmer leaders of Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) at Kisan Andolan office.

The protesting youths also sat on dharna there for around two-and-a-half hours and demanded the announcement of the programme for ‘Parliament march’ which the SKM had announced earlier. The SKM leaders pacified the youths and sent them back to their protesting place. The SKM meeting was also postponed today due to some internal issues.

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A meeting of farmer leaders of the 32 protesting farmer groups of Punjab and a meeting of Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) were scheduled for today at the Kisan Andolan office in Kundli.

After the meeting of the leaders of the 32 groups, the leaders of SKM, including Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Gurnam Singh Charuni, BKU leaders from Uttar Pradesh and others, entered the meeting hall but the meeting of the SKM was postponed due to some internal reasons, said Harinder Singh Lakhowal, general secretary, BKU (Lakhowal).

As the SKM leaders came out of the meeting hall, scores of young farmers reached there in trolleys and gheraoed the farmer leaders. They forced the farmer leaders to listen to their demands before going outside the Kisan Andolan office.

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The maximum number of youths among the protesters was from Punjab. Some youths were from Haryana, said sources. Some youths were associated with Lakha Sidhana, gangster-turned-social activist, some belong to Student for Society (SFS) organizations and some youths were associated with Navdeep Singh Jalbera of Ambala.

The youths demanded that the farmer leaders should announce the programme for ‘Parliament march’. The farmer leaders tried to pacify the youths, but they were not ready to hear them out.

After that, the farmer leaders held a meeting at the spot and decided not to talk on any issue with the youths today, said sources. The youths were pacified and were sent back to their protesting sites.

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Darshan Pal Singh, president, Krantikari Kisan Union and a member of SKM said, “We have pacified the youths that their sentiments are welcome but their way of expressing those is wrong. This is a movement of farmers and no decision will be taken under any pressure.” Their demand would be discussed in the next meeting of SKM, maintained Darshan Pal.

Notably, the SKM had announced the ‘Parliament march’ programme earlier but due to some internal reasons, the programme was delayed by the SKM leaders.

(The Tribune)