Farmers on a ‘Dilli chalo‘ march Friday afternoon – to press home a list of nearly five-year-old demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Prices, or MSP – were forced to call a after tear gas shells were fired by police blocking their path to the national capital.
Six people were injured in the clash that took place on National Highway 44, near Shambhu on the Punjab-Haryana border. “We have called back the protest for today in view of injuries suffered,” a farmer leader, Sarwan Singh Pandher, said. The farmer bodies involved in this protest – Samyukta Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha – will decide the next steps, he added.
Visuals shared by news agency IANS showed chaotic scenes at a police barricade across National Highway 44. In the 73-second video white tear gas smoke enveloped protesting farmers.
As the video pans out, rolls of barbed wire can also be seen and the gassed farmers are seen pulling back. An elderly farmer, affected by the tear gas, is attended to by fellow-protesters.
Ambala, Haryana: Police fired tear gas shells at the protesters pic.twitter.com/3sCa9haqT5
— IANS (@ians_india) December 6, 2024
Earlier in the day other visuals shared by news agency ANI showed a small army of farmers waving flags and chanting slogans, gathering in front of metal police barriers.
#WATCH | Farmers protesting over various demands have been stopped at the Shambhu border from heading towards Delhi. pic.twitter.com/Pm3HxgR2ie
— ANI (@ANI) December 6, 2024
In a third video a group of farmers, some waving the national flag, broke past one layer of barriers – a yellow police fence lay dented on the road – and amassed outside the barrier across the road.
Shortly before the march began, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told Parliament the Narendra Modi government is committed to purchasing farmers’ produce at MSP.
“I want to assure the House… all produce of farmers will be purchased at Minimum Support Price. This is the Modi government and (we will) fulfil Modiji’s guarantee,” Mr Chouhan said, also taking the opportunity for a dig at the Congress, referring to his “friends from the other side”.
“…they said, on record, they cannot accept the MS Swaminathan Commission recommendations… especially on paying 50 per cent more than cost price,” he said, declaring the government is already buying paddy, wheat, jowar, soyabean at 50 per cent over cost of production from three years ago.
Minutes before the march, mobile internet and sending of bulk messages were suspended – till December 9 – in parts of Ambala district. District officials had already issued orders banning gatherings of five or more people, and also ordered both government-run and private schools to shut for the day.
Today’s protest is meant to press home farmers’ longstanding demands for a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price, waiver of farm loans, and protection from increased electricity tariffs.
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The demand for legal backing for MSPs – which refers to a priced fixed by the government to protect farmers from a steep fall in crop prices; for example, during a bumper crop when prices plummet – a has been a core ask of protests that began in September 2020.
MSPs, however, have no legal backing, meaning the government is not obliged to buy, for example, 10 per cent of a farmer’s paddy crop at the floor price. And it is this that the farmers want changed.
This round of farmers’ protests, as they have since they first began, have also taken on a sharply political tinge, with the opposition rallying behind their demands. And their voice, they claim, has been boosted by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and his pointed question to Mr Chouhan.
On Tuesday Mr Dhankhar took up the farmers’ cause and questioned the government.
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“Agriculture Minister, every moment is important… please tell me, what was promised to farmers (and) why was the promise not fulfilled? What should we do to fulfil the promise?” he asked at a public event.
With input from agencies
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