Indian farmers call off 15-month protest after govt softens

FARMERS who have been protesting for more than 15 months against the now-scrapped farm laws of the Narendra Modi government and other issues, including a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price (MSP), have announced that they will call off the protest on Saturday (11) and return home.

The farmers’ unions have also planned a victory march at Singhu and Tikri protest sites on Delhi’s borders on the same night, sources said, adding that farm leaders have also planned to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar in the state on Monday (13).

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The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of farmers’ unions which led the protest, will hold another meeting on Delhi on Wednesday (15).

The farmers took the decision after the Modi government on Wednesday (8) sent a written draft proposal to the SKM’s five-member committee following a letter dated November 21 from the Morcha to Modi listing six demands.

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The farmers said in that repeal of the contentious laws was only one of the several concerns that they had raised and refused to leave the protest sites despite Modi cancelling the laws on November 19 – the 552nd birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev – and urging them to return home.

The central government, which later passed a law in the ongoing winter session of the parliament to officially scrap the controversial laws, agreed to form a committee to decide the MSP issue.

The committee will feature government officials, agricultural experts and representatives from the SKM.

The central government also agreed to drop all police cases against farmers and they include stubble-burning complaints and those filled by the northern states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in connection with violent clashes with security forces over the past several months.

It assured the farmers that all cases against them in relation to the protests will be immediately dropped and has also appealed to all concerned states to follow the same.