Farmers Rally At Azad Maidan Today

Mumbai : Farmers leaders have said that they will be holding a rally at Azad Maidan on November 28 a day ahead of Parliament’s winter session. 50,000 farmers are expected to join the rally. The immersion of the ashes of the farmers who sacrificed their lives during the Lakhimpur incident, will also take place at the Arabian Sea (Mumbai).

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait  has stated that the farmers have planned ‘Kisaan Majdoor Mahapanchayat’ where they will discuss all the issues faced by them like demand for all crop minimum support price (MSP), implementation of the Swaminathan report, unemployment and other issues.

Paying a tribute to the deceased farmers, Maha Vikas Aghadi Government might join the rally.

“On November 28, we will support the farmers’ rally which is to be held in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan. However, no political person will share the stage,” Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik said while addressing a press conference earlier this week.

Eight people, including four farmers, died in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri when a speeding SUV—allegedly driven Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish—rammed into a group of farmers protesting against the three new farm laws in front of UP’s deputy chief minister (CM) Keshav Prasad Maurya and subsequent violence in October.

The Centre has said that the bill to repeal the three contentious farm laws will be tabled on the first day of the upcoming Parliament session. Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar is expected to introduce the bill in Lok Sabha on Monday, which was approved by the Union cabinet earlier this week.

Meanwhile, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) suspended its November 29 tractor march to Parliament and said it will hold a meeting next month to decide its future course of action.

The farmers’ body had earlier said it will not end the stir until the contended farm laws are repealed and all their demands are met.

The three laws – the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act – were given assent by President Ram Nath Kovind on September 27, 2020, just days after both houses of Parliament passed them unanimously.