On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that his administration would repeal three farm legislations enacted by Parliament a year ago, sparking widespread protests from farmers organisations across the country. According to the prime minister, the procedure to repeal the legislation will take place during Parliament’s winter session, which begins next week. “We tried to offer farmers with seeds at cheap costs and services like micro-irrigation, 22 crore soil health cards,” Prime Minister Modi said in a national speech on Guru Nanak Jayanti. Such causes have aided increased agricultural productivity. However, we were unable to persuade them of the merits of the new rules.
The Supreme Court suspended the execution of three agricultural regulations after many rounds of discussions between the government and farmer groups failed to stop the demonstrations. Since November 2020, farmers from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and other states have been camping at Delhi’s borders in protest of three bills.
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PM Modi also announced the formation of a committee made up of representatives from the federal government, state governments, farmers, agricultural scientists, and agricultural economists to ensure that decisions on various agricultural issues, such as the minimum support price (MSP), are made in a more “effective and transparent” manner. In response to strong resistance during its last term, the Modi administration withdrew a contentious decree intended to reform the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013.
Haryana’s farmer organisations ask that the state government drop all criminal proceedings filed against farmers during the current unrest. Currently, around 150 FIRs have been filed against farmers throughout the 22 districts of the state. The Haryana Police had recently begun delivering notifications to agricultural protestors who had been arrested in various incidents during their ongoing agitation. Farmers, on their part, have been gheraoing police stations in protest of the FIRs. They also advised protestors who got such alerts to refrain from responding until their agitation had begun.
While just a few hundred protestors are mentioned as defendants in these FIRs for allegedly smashing police barriers and gheraoing BJP-JJP officials during the uprising, the number of farmers arrested is significantly more. The state administration said in August during the Assembly session that 136 FIRs had been filed against farmers demonstrating against the three agricultural laws in Haryana during the previous 11 months. Two of the FIRs were filed on sedition allegations, and several additional FIRs were filed against agricultural demonstrators after August. According to reports, police haven’t detained many farmers in connection with the FIRs because of the potential for resistance.
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Farm leaders also urged demonstrators not to attend to any police station, even if they were summoned for the same. They had stated that the matter of FIRs should be handled only after the three agricultural legislations have been decided. According to reports, police began distributing notifications to demonstrators through local sarpanches, numberdars, and chowkidars in this situation. Subhash Gurjar, president of the Yamunanagar BKU, claimed, “The cops came to my house 2-3 times.” They then attempted to notify the village numberdar, who in turn attempted to notify me. The village numberdar, however, refused to accept it.
The village chowkidar was also issued a notice for Sadaura block BKU unit president Satpal Manakpur, but he refused to accept it. Sukhdev Singh Salempur, president of the Bilaspur block BKU, received a similar notification. Similar attempts to deliver notifications to farmers through sarpanches or numberdars have been reported in over a dozen villages. No sarpanch or numberdar has accepted the notifications issued against the farmers, according to our information.” “Activists or local leaders are consciously being targeted,” Gurjar added. On the other hand, our agitation is uncontrollable, and it will keep on until the agriculture laws are removed.
As part of our protest, we are prepared to go to jail.” “We are attempting to conclude the investigations as per legal process,” Yamunanagar SP Kamaldeep Goyal said when approached. They are being served with notices under Section 41 A of the CrPC, requesting that they participate in the inquiry. However, they are not currently cooperating with the inquiry.” According to sources, police also served two notices on prominent BKU leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni.
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Farmer leaders said that the show cause notices were also sent to demonstrators to terminate their weapons licences, citing the charges filed against them. Chaduni had already expressed his displeasure with the situation, saying, “We will not tolerate the arrest of any farmer.” Only once the destiny of our agitation is decided will we decide on the FIRs.” Subhash Gurjar, a BKU representative, said that police in Yamunanagar began giving notifications to farmers a week ago.
