The ongoing struggle against the three farm laws will be intensified by roping in more sections of people to force the NDA government to repeal the corporate-friendly pieces of legislation, said All India Kisan Mazdoor Sangh national general secretary Ashok Ghayale.
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“We are prepared for a protracted struggle as the Narendra Modi government has not been conceding the just demands of farmers,” he said on the eve of the ‘Mahapanchayat’ here on Monday.
Going forward, the protesting farmers would lay a siege to the houses of BJP MPs with a view to build pressure on the Central government to scrap the farm laws, which, he feared would alienate further the small, marginal and tenant farmers. “We are determined to carry on the struggle peacefully,” he said.
The three laws were nothing but part of a larger design to curry favours with the domestic and foreign companies at a time when the farmers were increasingly finding it difficult to stay afloat in the wake of the onslaught by the market forces, he said along with AIKMS State General Secretary Chittipati Venkateswarlu.
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The violence that erupted at Red Fort was a ‘conspiracy’ allegedly by the Hindutva forces to tarnish the image of the farmers in the eyes of the common people, he said. Farmers paraded over two lakh tractors on the Delhi outskirts on the Republic Day without giving room for violence on that day and left the place peacefully, he explained.
“The stir is no longer confined to Delhi. It is spreading thick and fast across the nation and also drawing support from more sections of people including the toiling masses,” he observed.
Other sections, including industrial workers, had also made a common cause with the farmers, following the Centre’s PSU privatisation spree. The Hamalis, who had largely depended on the organised agriculture produce market committees(AMCs), had sensed a threat to their livelihood and they were also part of the struggle now, he said.