The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of over 40 farmer unions, announced on Thursday, 15 July, that farmers from 22 states will participate in “peaceful” protests planned outside Parliament starting from 22 July to continue their demand of scrapping the three contentious farm laws and for a legal guarantee on MSP.
SKM has planned that daily protests with around 200 farmers will be held outside Parliament during the Monsoon Session, news agency PTI reported.
Maintaining that the protests will be "peaceful", the leaders have not commented on whether they have permission to hold the demonstrations.
SKM said in a statement, “The Samyukta Kisan Morcha's call for Parliament March from July 22 till August 13 has received an overwhelming and enthusiastic response from across the country."
Farmers From Across the Country
A large number of farmers from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra, Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Manipur, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan, besides Punjab and Haryana, will participate in the protest.
Moreover, special marches by women on 26 July and 9 August will also see huge participation from across India, including the northeastern states, SKM said.
"The parliamentarians shall see farmers from all over India march in a disciplined manner to parliament to place their demands and have their voices heard," SKM said.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Punjabi artists, including Gul Panag, Babbu Mann, and Amitoj Mann performed for the protesters camping at the Singhu border, extending their support to the farmers' movement.
The statement added, "It is noteworthy that all sections of the country are coming out in support of the farmers and it is unfortunate that the Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unable to do justice to the farmers and stand with them.”
The farmers protests began in 2020 and have been going on for more than seven months, with thousands of farmers agitating at the Delhi borders against the three farm laws that they claim will do away with the Minimum Support Price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporations.
Despite 10 rounds of talks with the government, the deadlock between the Modi-led government and farmers has failed to break.
(With inputs from PTI)
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