New Delhi: We reproduce below a letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi today by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella body of 40 farmer unions spearheading the agitation against the three new farm laws for the last six months.
– Editor
To:
Shri Narendra Modi
Prime Minister of India
South Block
New Delhi – 110 001
Sub:- Immediate intervention to resume discussions with Samyukt Kisan Morcha to address pressing demands of protesting farmers and other rural citizens
Dear Prime Minister,
We write to you with deep indignation, anguish as well as determination, in the midst of a colossal tragedy in which the country has lost lakhs of lives.
We, the farmers of India, who have been in continuous struggle, staying day and night at the borders of New Delhi in cold, rain and heat under the banner of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), are writing this letter a few days before our struggle completes six months on 26th May 2021.On the same day, your government at the Centre, the most anti-farmer government that this country has seen, completes seven years in office. Farmers and organizations across the country are planning to observe this as a Black Flag day in protest against the utter inaction and callous approach of the government towards the farmers’ demands. It so happens that the same day would be celebrated as Buddha Purnima to mark the birth, nirvana and parinirvana of Lord Buddha.
The SKM has always reiterated its resolve and faith in peaceful mass struggles and democratic solutions through dialogue. During the first two months of the struggle, the government held 11 rounds of discussions with us in which we extended full cooperation in good faith, despite the repression and defamation unleashed by your government against the movement. Yet the government failed to address the bare minimum demands of the protesting farmers. Any democratic government would have repealed the three laws that have been rejected by the farmers in whose name these were enacted and seized this opportunity to provide legal guarantee of minimum support price to all farmers.
Instead, your government chose to turn this into a prestige point and refused to budge. Worse, your government has shut the doors for any dialogue since 22nd January 2021, even when you claimed the opposite. We have so far lost more than 470 colleagues in this movement due to this obstinacy on the part of your government.
Yet the farmers all over the country are determined to continue with the most unique, longest, largest and most peaceful protest that India has witnessed since its independence. Even during the dangerous surge of the Covid -19 pandemic, the ‘annadatas’ of our country are forced to remain on the streets for half a year. Deeply conscious of the risks of the pandemic, we have no desire to expose the protesting farmers or anyone else to avoidable health hazards; at the same time, farmers cannot give up on this struggle that is a matter of life and death for them and for their future generations.
Mr. Prime Minister, this letter is to remind you that, as the head of the government of the largest democracy in the world, the onus of resuming a serious and sincere dialogue with the farmers lies with you. This is to reiterate that we remain firm on our core demands: repeal of the three anti-people Farm Acts and legal guarantee for every farmer securing MSP (@C2+50%), besides protecting farmers from the adverse impact of the proposed Electricity Bill.
This letter is also to demand that the government must deploy all the energy and resources at its command to respond to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic that has now spread to rural areas as well. The only way to do so would be to ensure free treatment to all Covid patients, provide free ration and livelihood support to all the needy citizens and offer free vaccination to all within six months. We are sure that all of this is indeed possible if there is a political will.
We do not wish to distract the government at this juncture, even though the hardship we face is mounting every day. That is why we have waited patiently for the past four months. But if we do not have a constructive and positive response from your government by 25th of this month, we shall be constrained to announce a further intensification of our struggle in the next phase, beginning with the national day of protest on the 26th of May.
Wishing good sense to your government on Buddha Purnima,
Yours truly,
For Samyukt Kisan Morcha:
Balbir Singh Rajewal,
Darshan Pal, Gurnam Singh Chadhuni, Hannan Mollah, Jagjit Singh Dallewal, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, Shiv Kumar Kakkaji, Yogendra Yadav, Yudhvir Singh
