
BENGALURU: Expressing solidarity with Jagjit Singh Dallewal, a farmer leader on hunger strike in Punjab, Federation of Karnataka State Farmers’ Organizations president Kuruburu Shanthakumar said a tractor rally will be held in the district and taluk centres on January 26.
Dallewal, a Samyukt Kisan Morcha leader, has been on hunger strike for the past 52 days at the Khanauri border in Punjab, over the Minimum Support Price guarantee law for produce from farmers.
Lashing out at the Central government, Shanthakumar said 111 farmers have started fasting in Khanauri, saying they are ready to sacrifice their lives along with Dallewal. “When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Gujarat CM in 2014, he spoke about the farmers’ struggle, MSP, Swaminathan report and others. Now, he has forgotten all his promises. The agitation is to remind him of his promises,” said Shanthakumar.
He added that the Central government is trying to weaken the farmers’ movement by diverting its focus. The Nawab Singh Committee, headed by a retired High Court judge appointed by the Supreme Court to take remedial action on the problems of the farmers’ struggle on the Delhi border, gave its interim report on November 22.
The committee had reported that it is essential to implement the MSP guarantee system for farmers’ agricultural products, but the central government is not responding to anything, Shanthakumar said.
A resolution was also passed at the farmer leaders’ meeting in Bengaluru on Thursday, seeking the intervention of the President to instruct the Central government to hold talks with the fasting farmers, awareness campaigns in villages, taluks, hoblis and district centres, are part of the resolution.